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LETTERS 



TO 



©j^^nci^iEaMn^ iMa mmm^^'M^y 



IN REPLY TO 



AN ESSAY ON SLAVERY AND ABOLITIONISM, 



ADDRESSED TO 



A. E. GRIMKE 



REVISED BY THE AUTHOR 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY ISAAC KNAPP, 

25, CORN HILL. 

Ib38. 



B'A -j 



Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1838, 

by Isaac KbAPP, 
in ilie Clerk'd Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



LETTER I. 

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF ABOLITIONISTS. 

Brookline, Mass. 6 months 12th, 1837. 

My Dear Friend : Thy book has appeared just at 
a time, when, from the nature of my engagements, it 
will be impossible for me to give it that attention 
which so weighty a subject demands. Incessantly oc- 
cupied in prosecuting a mission, the responsibilities of 
which task all my powers, I can reply to it only by 
desultory letters, thrown from my pen as I travel from 
place to place. I prefer this mode to that of taking 
as long a time to answer it, as thou didst to determine 
upon the best method by which to counteract the ef- 
fect of my testimony at the north — which, as the pre- 
face of thy book informs me, was thy main design. 

Thou thinkest I have not been ' sufficiently informed 
in regard to the feelings and opinions of Christian fe- 
males at the North ' on the subject of slavery ; for that 
in fact they hold the same principles with Abolition- 
ists, although they condemn their measures. \Vilt 
thou permit me to receive their principles from thy 
pen ? Thus instructed, however misinformed I may 



•1 FT'NDAMENTAL PRINCirLE 

hercioforc have been, I can hardly fail of attaining to 
acoiiraio knowledge. Let us examine them, to see 
how far they correspond with the principles held by 
Abolitionists. 

The great fundamental principle of Abolitionists is, 
that man cannot rightfully hold his fellow man as pro- 
perty. Therefore, we aflirm, that every slaveholder is 
a inan'Stcaler. We do so, for the following reasons : 
to steal a man is to rob him of himself. It matters not 
whether this be done in Guinea, or Carolina; a man 
is a vtnn, and as a man he has bmlieiiahle rights, 
nmong which is ihe right to pevsoual liber /y. Now if 
every mun has an iHulienable right to personal liberty, 
it follows, that he cannot rightfully be reduced to sla- 
very. I^u 1 (iii't ill these United States, 2,250,000 
men, women and ihilJren, robbed of that to which 
liiey have an iualienahh right. How comes this to 
pass? Where millions are plundered, are there no 
piunderira? If, then, the slaves have been robbed of 
ihcir liberty, who has robbed them ? Not the man 
who stole their forefathers from Africa, but he Avho 
now holds them in bondage; no matter /^oz<; they came 
into his pos.session, whether he inherited them, or 
bought them, or seized them at their birth on his own 
plantation. The only difference I can see between 
Ihc original man-stealer, who caught the African in 
his native country, and the American slaveholder, is, 
that the former committed owe act of robbery, w^hile the 
other perpetrates the same crime coiUimmlly. Slave- 
hol.lin^' is the perpetrating of acts, all of the same kind, 
in n srric$, the tirst of which is technically called man- 
sieahn^. The Jirst act robbed the man of himself; 



OF ABOLITIONISTS. 5 

and the same state of mind that prompted that act, 
keeps up the series, having taken his all from him : it 
keeps his all from him, not only refusing to restore, 
but still robbing him of all he gets, and as fast as he 
gets it. Slaveholding, then, is the constant or habit- 
ual perpetration of the act of man-stealing. To make 
a slave is man-stealing — the act itself- — to hold him 
such is man-stealing — the habit, the permanent state, 
made up of individual acts. In other words — to be- 
gin to hold a slave is nian-stealing — to keep on holding 
him is merely a repetition of the first act — a doing 
the same identical thing all the time. A series of the 
same acts continued for a length of time is ^habit — a 
permanent state. And \kiQ first of this series of the 
same acts that make up this habit or state is just like 
all the rest. 

If every slave has a right to freedom, then surely 
the man who withholds that right from him to-day is 
a man-stealer, though he may not be the first person 
who has robbed hmi of it. Hence we find that Wes- 
ley says — ' M.^Si'Ci-huyers are exactly on a level with 
men-5?e«Z6r5.' And again — ' Much less is it possible 
that any child of man should ever be born a slave.'' 
Hear also Jonathan Edwards — ' To hold a man in a 
state of slavery, is to be every day guilty of robbing 
him of his liberty, or of man-stealing.'' And Groti- 
us says — ' Those are men-stealers who abduct, keep, 
sell or buy slaves or freemen.' 

If thou meanest merely that acts of that samenature, 
but differently located in a series, are designated by 
different terms, thus pointing out their different rela- 
tive positions, then thy argument concedes what we 
1# 



6 ri'N'DAMENTAL PRINCIPLE 

aii'irm,— ihe iJenliiy in ilic nature of the acts, and 
\\i\\^ ii dwindles to a mere philological criticism, or 
rutii'-r a mere play upon words. 

These are Abolition sentiments on tlie subject of 
slaveholding ; and although our principles are univer- 
.vally lieid l>y our opposers at the North, yet I am told 
on ihe 41lh page of thy book, that ' the word man- 
fcicaler has one peculiar signification, and is no more 
synonymous with slaveholder than it is with sheep- 
slealer.' I must acknowledge, thou hast only confirm- 
ed my opinion of the difference which I had believed 
lo exi>l between Abolitionists and their opponents. 
As well might Saul have declared, that he held simi- 
lar views with Stephen, when he stood by and kept 
the raiment of those who slew him. 

I know that a broad line of distinction is drawn be- 
tween our principles and our measures, by those who 
are anxious to * avoid the appearance of evil' — very 
desirous of retaining the fair character of enemies to 
slavery. Now, our measures are simply the carrying 
out of Qwx principles ; and we find, that just in pro- 
portion as individuals embrace our principles, in spirit 
and in truth, they cease to cavil at our measures. Ger- 
rit Smith is a striking illustration of this. Who cav- 
ill' 1 more at Anti-Slavery measures, and who more 
' • U- now to acknowledge his former blindness ? Real 
iiionists know full well, that the slave never 
has been, and never can be, a whit the better for mere 
ab»tractions, floating iu the head of any man ; and 
thfv al>o know, ([vaX principles, fixed in the heart, are 
tilings of another sort. The former have never done 
any good in the world, because they possess no 



OF ABOLITIONISTS. 7 

vitality, and therefore cannot bring forth the fruits of 
holy, untiring effort ; but the latter live in the lives of 
their possessors, and breathe in their words. And I 
am free to express my belief, that all who really and 
heartily approve our _pW?zcz^Ze5, will also approve our 
raeasures ; and that, too, just as certainly as a good 
tree will bring forth good fruit. 

But there is another peculiarity in the views of Ab- 
olitionists. We hold that the North is guilty of the 
crime of slaveholding — we assert that it is a national 
sin : on the contrary, in thy book, I find the following 
acknowledgement: — ' Most persons in the non-slave- 
holding States, have considered the matter of south- 
ern slavery as one in which they were no more called 
to interfere, than in the abolition of the press-gang 
system in England, or the tithe-system in Ireland.' 
Now I cannot see how the same principles can pro- 
duce such entirely different opinions. * Can a good 
tree bring forth corrupt fruit V This I deny, and can- 
not admit what thou art anxious to prove, viz. that 
* Public opinion may have been lorong on this point, 
and yet right on all those great principles of rectitude 
and justice relating to slavery.' If Abolition princi- 
ples are generally adopted at the North, how comes it 
to pass, that there is no abolition action here, except 
what is put forth by a few despised fanatics, as they 
are called ? Is there any living faith without works ? 
Can the sap circulate vigorously, and yet neither blos- 
soms put forth nor fruit appear ? 

Again, I am told on the 7th page, that all Northern 
Christians believe it is a sin to hold a man in slavery 
for ^ Tnere jnir poses of gain ;^ as if this was the wkole 



8 rrNPAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF ABOLITIONISTS. 

abolilion principle on this subject. I can assure thee 
thai Aboliiionisis do not slop here. Our principle is, 
thai no circumstances can ever justify a man in hold- 
ing his fellow man a'^ property ; it matters not what 
motirt he may give for such a monstrous violation of 
the law.s of God. The claim to him ViS property is an 
annihilalion of his right to himself, which is the foun- 
dation upon which all his other rights are built. It is 
high-handed robbery of Jehovah; for He has declar- 
ed, ' All souls arc ininc.' For myself, I believe there 
ire hundreds of thousands at the South, who do not 
hold their slaves, by any means, as much 'for purposes 
of gain,' as they do from the lust of power : this is 
the passion that reigns triumphant there, and those 
who do not know this, have much yet to learn. Where, 
then, is the similarity in our views ? 

I forbear for the present, and subscribe rnyself, 
Thine, but not in the bonds of gospel Abolitionism, 

A. E. GRDIKE. 



LETTER II. 



IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 



Brookline, Mass. Q)th month, 17tk, 1S37, 

Dear Friend : Where didst thou get thy statement 
of what Abolitionists mean by immediate emancipa- 
tion? I assure thee, it is a noveUy. I never heard 
any aboHtionist say that slaveholders ' were physically 
unable to emancipate their slaves, and of course are 
not bound to do it,' because in some States there are 
laws which forbid emancipation. This is truly what 
our opponents affirm ; but tve say that all the laws 
which sustain the system of slavery are unjust and 
oppressive — contrary to the fundamental principles of 
morality, and, therefore, null and void. 

We hold, that all the slaveholding- laws violate the 
fundamental principles of the Constitution of the 
United States. In the preamble of that instrument, 
the great objects for which it was framed are declared 
to be ' to establish justice, to promote the general 
welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to us 
and to our posterity.' The slave laws are flagrant 



10 • IMMEDIATE 

violations of these fundamental principles. Slavery 
subverts justice, promotes the welfare of the few to 
the manifest injury of the many, and robs thousands 
of the posterity of our forefathers of the blessings of 
liberty. This cannot be denied, for Paxton, a Virginia 
slaveholder, says, ' the best blood in Virginia flows in 
the veins of slaves !' Yes, even the blood of a Jeffer- 
son. And every southerner knows, that it is a com- 
mon thing for the posterity of our forefathers to be 
sold on the vendue tables of the South. The posteri- 
ty of our fathers are advertised in American papers as 
runaway slaves. Such advertisements often contain 
expressions like these : ' has sometimes passed himself 
off as a white man,' — ' has been mistaken for a white 
man,' — ' quite white^ has straight hair, and would not 
readily be taken for a slave,' &c. 

Now, thou wilt perceive, that, so far from thinking 
that a slaveholder is bound by the immoral and un- 
co7istitutional laws of the Southern States, we hold 
that he is solemnly bound as a man, as an American, 
to break them, and that immediately and openly ; as 
much so, as Daniel was to pray, or Peter and John to 
preach — or every conscientious Quaker to refuse 
to pay a militia fine, or to train, or to fight. We 
promulgate no such time-serving doctrine as that set 
f trth by thee. When ice talk of immediate emanci- 
pation, we speak that we do mean, and the slavehold- 
ers understand u.s, if thou dost not. 

Here, then, is another point in which we are entire- 
ly at variance, though the principles of abolitionism are 
'generally adopted by our opposers.' What shall I 
say to these things, but that I am glad thou hast af- 



EMANCIPATION 



forded me an opportunity of explaining to thee what 
our principles really are ? for I apprehend that thou 
* hast not been sufficiently informed in regard to the 
feelings and opinions ' of abolitionists. 

It matters not to me what meaning ' Dictionaries or 
standard writers ' may give to immediate emancipa- 
tion. My Dictionary is the Bible ; my standard au- 
thors, prophets and apostles. When Jehovah com- 
manded Pharaoh to ' let the people go,' he meant that 
they should be immediately emancipated. I read his 
meaning in the judgments which terribly rebuked 
Pharaoh's repeated and obstinate refusal to ' let the 
people go.' I read it in the universal emancipation of 
near 3,000,000 of Israelites in one aivful night. 
When the prophet Isaiah commanded the Jews ' to 
loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy bur- 
dens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break 
every yoke,' he taught no gradual or partial emanci- 
pation, but immediate, universal emancipation. When 
Jeremiah said, ' Execute judgment in the morning, 
and deliver him ,that is spoiled out of the hand of the 
oppressor,' he commanded immediate deliverance. 
And so also with Paul, when he exhorted masters to 
render unto their servants that which is just and equal. 
Obedience to this command would immediately over- 
turn the whole system of American Slavery ; for lib- 
erty is justly due to every American citizen, according 
to the laws of God and the Constitution of our coun- 
try; and a fair recompense for his labor is the right of 
every man. Slaveholders know this is just as well as 
we Jo. John C. Calhoun said in Congress, in 1S33— 
* He who mrm the money— who digs it out of the 



12 IM.'IEDIATE 

earth with ihe sweat of his brow, has dijicst title to it 
ni'ninsi ilie Universe. No one has a right to touch it 
trt'''i<jut his consent, except his g-overnment, and it 
V7iiy to the extont of ii.s hgithnate wants : to take more 
is robbery.* 

U our fundamental principle is right, that no man 
can rightfully Iioldhis fellow man ^s property, then it 
f""')ws, of course, that he is bound immediately to 
1 I--' liolding liim as such, and that, too, in violation of 
the immoral and unconstitutional laws which have 
been framed for the express purpose of ' turning aside 
the needy from judgment, and to take away the right 
from the poor of the people, that widows may be their 
prey, and thai they may rob the fatherless.' Every 
slaveholder is bound to cease to do evil now, to eman- 
cipate iiis slaves now. 

Dost thou ask what I mean by emancipation ? I will 
explain myself in a few words. 1. It is ' to reject with 
indignation, the wild and guilty phantasy, that man 
can liold property in man.' 2. To pay the laborer 
bis hire, for he is worthy of it. 3. No longer to de- 
ny liim the right of marriage, but to 'let every man 
Ijave his own wife, and let every woman have her 
own husband,' as sailh the apostle. 4. To let parents 
have llieir own children, for they are the gift of the 
Lord to them, and no one else has any right to them. 
5. No longer to withhold the advantages of education 
and the privilege of reading the Bible. 6. To put 
the slave under the protection of equitable laws. 

Now, why should not all this be done immediately ? 
Which of these things is to be done next year, and 
which the year after ? and so on. Our immediate 



EMANCIPATION. 13 

emancipation means, doing justice and loving mercy 
to-day — and this is what we call upon every slavehold- 
er to do. 

I have seen too much of slavery to be a gradualist. 
I dare not, in view of such a system, tell the slave- 
holder, that ' he is physically unable to emancipate his 
slaves.' I say he is able to let the oppressed go free, 
and that such heaven-darinsf atrocities ouo-ht to cease 
noiv, henceforth and forever. Oh, my very soul is 
grieved to find a northern woman thus ' sewing pil- 
lows under all arm-holes,' framing and fitting soft ex- 
cuses for the slaveholder's conscience, whilst with the 
same pen she is professing to regard slavery as a sin. 
' An open enemy is better than such a secret friend.' 

Hoping that thou mayest soon be emancipated from 
such inconsistency, I remain until then, 

Thine out of the bonds of Christian Abolitionism, 

A. E. GRIMKE. 



LETTER III. 



MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. 



Lynn, Qth Month, 23fZ, 1S37. 
Dr.AH Fkilm) : — 1 now pass on to the consideration of 
* the main principle of action in the Anti-Slavery Soci- 
ety.' Thou art pleased to assert that it ' rests wholly on 
a false deduction from past experience.' In this, also, 
ihou ' hast not been sufficiently informed.' Our main 
principle of action is embodied in God's holy command 
— 'Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your 
doings froui before mine eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do 
well ; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the 
fatherless, plead for the widow.' Under a solemn 
conv it-lion that it is our duty as Americans to ' cry 
aloud and ^pare not, to lift up our voices as a trumpet, 
and to .sliow our people their transgressions, and the 
house of Jacob their sins,' we are striving to rouse a 
slumbering nation to a sense of the retributions which 
must soon descend upon lier guilty head, unless like 
IS'iru'vah .she repent, and ' break off her sins by righte- 
ousness, and her transgressions by showing mercy to 
the poor.' This is our ' main principle of action.' 



MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. 15 

Does it rest ' wholly on a false deduction from past 
experience ?' or on the experience of Israel's King, 
who exclaimed, 'In keeping of them (thy command- 
ments,) there is great reward.' 

Thou art altogether under a mistake, if thou sup- 
posest that our ' m.ain principle of action' is the suc- 
cessful effort of abolitionists in England, in reference 
to the abolition of the slave-trade ; for I hesitate not 
to pronounce the attempts of Clarkson and Wilber- 
force, at that period of their history, to have been a 
complete failure ; and never have the labors of any 
phiknthropists so fully showed the inefRcacy of half- 
way principles, as have those of these men of honora- 
ble fame. The doctrines now advocated by the 
American Anti- Slavery Society, were not advanced 
by the abolitionists of that day. They were not im- 
mediate abolitionists, but just such gradualists as thou 
art even now. If I supposed that our labors in the 
cause of the slave would produce no better results 
than those of these worthies, I should utterly despair. 
I need not remind thee, that they bent all their ener- 
gies to the annihilation of the slave-trade, under the 
impression that this was the mother of slavery ; and 
that after toiling for twenty years, and obtaining the 
passage of an act to that effect, the result was a mere 
nominal abolition : for the atrocities of the slave-trade 
are, if possible, greater now than ever. I wnll explain 
what I mean. A friend of mine one evening last 
winter, heard a conversation between two men, one of 
whom had, until recently, been a slave-trader. Ke 
had made several voyages to the coast of Africa, and 
said that once his vessel was chased by an English 



16 MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. 

man of war, and liiat, in order to avoid a search and 
ihc penalty of death, he threw every slave overboard j 
and when his companion expressed surprise and horror 
al such a wholesale murder, ' Why,' said the trader, 
•it was the fauU of the English ; they had no busi- 
ness to make a law to hang a man on the yard arm, 
if ihey caught him with slaves in his ship.' He 
intimated that it was not an uncommon thing for the 
captains of slavers thus to save their lives> Where, 
then, I ask, is this glorious success of -which we hear 
so much, but sec so little ? 

Let us travel onward, from tlie year 1806, when 
England passed her abolition act. What were British 
philanthropists doing for the emancipation of the 
slave, for the next twenty years ? Nothing at all ; and 
it was the voice of Elizabeth Heyrick which first 

•And in ' Laird's Expedition to Africa, &c.' a work recently 
published in Enj^land, this assertion of the slave trader is fully 
su5iaincd. Laird relates that ' there is 'proof of the horrid 
fact, that several of the wretches engaged in this traffic, when 
hotly pursued, consigned ivholc cargoes to the deep.' He then. 
goes on to slate several such instances, from which I select 
the following: ' In 1833, the Black Joke and Fair Rosamond 
fell in with the Herculc and Kegule, two slave vessels off the 
Bonny River. On perceiving the cruisers, they attempted to 
regain the port, and pitched overboard upwards of 500 human 
beings, chained together, before they were captured ; from the 
abundance of .sharks in the river, their track was literally a 
blood-stained one. The slaver not only does this, but glories 
in it : the first words uttered by the captain of the Maria Isa- 
bellc, stM/fd by captain Rose, were, ' that if he had seen the 
man of war in chase an hour sooner, he would have thrown 
(very slave in his vessel overboard,, as he was fully insured,^ 



MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. lY 

awakened them from their dream of gradualism to 
an understanding of the simple doctrine of immediate 
emancipation ; but even though they saw the injus- 
tice and inefficiency of their own views, yet several 
years elapsed before they had the courage to promul- 
gate hers. And now I can point thee to the success 
of these efforts in the emancipation bill of 1834. 
But even this success was paltry, in comparison with 
what it would have been, had all the conspicuous 
abolitionists of England been true to these just and 
holy principles. Some of them were false to those 
principles, and hence the compensation and appren- 
ticeship system. A few months ago, it was my priv- 
ilege to converse with .Joseph Sturge, on his return 
from the West Indies, via New York, to Liverpool, 
whither he had gone to examine the working of Eng- 
land's plan of emancipation. I heard him speak of 
the bounty of £20,000,000 which she had put into the 
hands of the planters, of their mean and cruel abuse 
of the apprenticeship system, and of the hearty ap- 
probation he felt in the thorough-going principles of 
the Anti-Slavery Societies in this country, and his 
increased conviction that ours were the only right 
principles on this important subject. That even the 
apprenticeship system is viewed by British philan- 
thropists as a complete failure, is evident from the 
fact that they are now re-organizing their Anti-Sla- 
very Societies, and circulating petitions for the substi- 
tution of immediate emancipation in its stead. 

Hence it appears, that so far from our resting 
'wholly upon a false deduction from past experience^'' 
we are resting on no experience at all ; for no class of 
2=^ 



IS MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. 

men in the world ever have maintained the principles 
which we now advocate. Our main principle of 
uciion is *oWdiencc to God '— oiu- hope of success is 
faith in Him. and that faitli is as unwavering as He 
is true and powerful. 'Blessed is the man who 

ih in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.' 
>. uh regard to the connection between the North 
and the South, I shall say but little, having already 

;hoe my views on that subject in the letter to 
' Cl.irkson,' originally published in the New Haven 
•ntliL'ioiis Intelligencer. I there pointed out fifteen 
• ll-.rurciit ways in which the North was implicated in 
the guillof slavery ; and, therefore, I deny the charge 
llial abolitionists ave endeavoring 'to convince their 

V riliz'-ms of the faults of another community.' 
.NM. ;ii al!. We arc spreading out the horrors of slavery 
beioro Northerners, in order to show them their own 
sin in sustaining such a system of complicated wrong 
and suffering. It is because we are ]X)litically, com- 
mercially, and socially connected with our southern 
1' •■ •• ■. that wo urge our doctrines upon those of the 
!. s. We have begun our work /zere, because 

pro-slavery men of the North are to the system of 
slavery just what temperate drinkers were to the vice 
of intemperance. Temperance reformers did not begi7i 
their labors among druidiards, but among temperate 
drinkers : so Anti-Slaverv reformers did not deiri?i 
iheir labors among slaveholders, but among those who 
wero making their forlimes out of the unrequited toil 
of the sl;»vc. and rereiving larije mnrtgaces on south- 
ern plantations and slaves, and tradiiig occasionally 
in ' slaves and the souls of men,' and sending men to 



MAIN PniNCIPLE OF ACTION. IS^ 

Congress to buy up southern land to bo co:i verted 
into slave States, such as Louisiana and Florida, which 
cost this nation $20,000,000 — men who have adnnitted 
seven slave States into the Union — men who boast 
on the floor of Congress, that ' there is no cause in 
v/hich they w^ould. sooner buckle a knapsack on their 
backs and shoulder g. musket, than that of putting 
down a servile insurrection at the South,' as said the' 
present Governor of Massachusetts, vv hich odious sen- 
timent was repeated by Governor Lincoln only last 
w^inter — men who, trained up on Freedom's soil, yet 
go down to the South and marry slaveholders, and 
beconie slaveholders, and then return to our northern 
cities with slaves in their train. This is the case 
with a native of this town, who is now here with his 
southern wife and southern slave. And as soon as 
we reform the recreant sons and daughters of the 
North, — as soon as we rectify public opinion at the 
North, — then I, for one, will promise to go down inta 
the midst of slaveholders themselves, to promulgate 
our doctrmes in the land of the slave. But how can 
we go now, v^/hen northern pulpits and meeting-houses 
are closed, and northern ministers are dumb, and 
northern Governors are declaring that ' the discussion 
of the subject of slavery ought to be made an offence 
indictable at common lavi^,' and northern women are 
writing books to paralyze the efforts of southern w^o- 
men, who have come up from the South, to entreat 
their northern sisters to exert their influence in behalf 
of the slave, and in behalf of the slaveholder, who is 
as deeply corrupted, though not equally degraded, with 
the slave. No ! No ! the taunts of a New England 



20 



MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. 



woman will induce no abolitionist to cease his rebuke 
of northern slaveholders and apologists for slavery. 
Southerners see the wisdom o[ this, \ithou canst not; 
and over against thy opinion, I will place that of a 
Loui.>iana planter, who, whilst on a visit to his relatives 
at Uxbridge, Mass. this summer, unhesitatingly ad- 
mitted that the I^orth was Uw right place to begin 
Anti-Slavery efforts. Had I not been convinced of 
this before, surely thy book would have been all-suffi- 
cient to satisfy me of it ; for a more subtle defence of 
the slaveholders right to property in his helpless vic- 
tmis, I never saw. It is just such a defence as the 
hidden enemies of Liberty will rejoice to see, because, 
like thyself, they earnestly desire to < avoid the appear- 
ance of evil ; ' they are as much opposed to slavery as 
we are, only they arc as much opposed to Anti-Sla- 
very as the slaveholders themselves. Is there any 
nnddle path in this reformation? Or may we not 
fa.rly conclude, that he or she that is not for the slave 
in deed and in truth, is against him, no matter how 
specious their professions of pity for his condition ? 
h\ haste, I remain thy friend, 

A. E. GRIMKJE. 



LETTER IV. 

CONNECTION BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 

Danvers, Mass., ^(th mo.^ 1837. 
Dear Friend : — I thank thee for having furnished 
me with just such a simile as I needed to illustrate the 
connection which exists between the North and the 
South. Thou sayest, ' Suppose two rival cities, one of 
which becomes convinced that certain practices in trade 
and business in the other are dishonest, and have an op- 
pressive bearing on certain classes in that city. Suppose, 
also, that these are practices,which, by those who allow 
them, are considered as honorable and right. Those 
who are convinced of this immorality wish to alter 
the opinions and the practices of the citizens of their 
rival city, and to do this they commence the collection 
of facts, that exhibit the tendencies of these practices 
and the evils they have engendered. But, instead of 
going among the community in which the evil exists, 
and endeavoring to convince them, they proceed to 
form voluntary associations among their neighbors at 
home, and spend their time, money, and efforts to 
convince their fellow citizens that the inhabitants o-f 



^2 CONNECTION BETWEEN 



their rival city are guilty of a great sin.' Now I will 
take up the comparison here, and suppose a few other 
things about these two cities. Suppose that the peo- 
ple in one city were known never to pay the laborer 
his wages, but to be in the constant habit of keeping 
back the hire of those who reaped down their fields ; 
and that, on examination, it was found that the people 
in the other city were continually going over to live 
with these gentlemen oppressors, and instead of re- 
buking them, were joining hands in wickedness with 
them, and were actually Jiiore oppressive to the poor 
than the native inhabitants. Suppose, too, it was 
found that many of the merchants in the city of Fair- 
dealing, as it was called, were known to hold mort- 
gages, not only upon the property which ought to 
belong to the unpaid laborers, but mortgages, too, on 
the laborers themselves, aj^ and their ivives and chil- 
dren also, a thing altogether contrary to the laws of 
their city, and the customs of their people, and the 
principles of fundamental morality. Suppose, too, it 
was found that the people in the city of Oppression 
were in the coristant practice of sending over to the 
city of Fairdealing, and bribing their citizens to seize 
the poorest, most defenceless of their people for them, 
because they were so lazy they would not do their 
own work, and so mean they would not pay others 
for doing it, and chose thus to supply themselves with 
laborers, who, when they once got into the city, were 
l)larfd under such severe laws, 'that it was almost im- 
possible for them ever to return to their o-fflicted wives 
and children. Suppose, too, that whenever any of 
these oppressed, unpaid laborers happened to escape 



THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 23 

from the city of Oppression, and after lying out in the 
woods and fastnesses which lay between the two cities, 
for many weeks, 'in weariness and painfulness, in 
watchings, in hunger and thirst, in cold and naked- 
ness,' that, as soon as they reached the city of Fair- 
dealing, they were most unmercifully hunted out and 
sent back to their cruel oppressors, who it was well 
known generally treated such laborers with great cru- 
elty, ' stern necessity' demanding that they should be 
punished and ' rebuked before all, that others might 
fear' the consequences of such elopement. In short, 
suppose that the city of Fairdealing was so completely 
connected with the city of Oppression, that the golden 
strands of their interests Avere twisted together so as 
to form a bond of Union stronger than death, and that 
by the intermarriages which were constantly taking 
place, there was also a silken cord of love tying up 
and binding together the tender feelings of their hearts 
with all the intricacies of the Gordian knot ; and then, 
again, that the identity of the political interests of these 
cities were wound round and round them like bands 
of iron and brass, altogether forming an union so 
complicated and powerful, that it ^vas impossible even 
to speak in the most solemn manner, in the city of 
Fairdeahng, of the enormous crimes which were 
common in the city of Oppression, without having 
brickbats and rotten eggs hurled at the speaker's 
head. Suppose, too, that although it was perfectly 
manifest to every reflecting mind, that a most guilty 
copartnership existed between these two cities, yet 
that the ' gentlemen of property and standing' of the 
city of Fairdealing were continually taunting the 



24 CONNECTION BETWEEN 



people who were trying to represent their iniquitous 
leag"ue with tiie city of Oppression in its true and 
einful bearings, willi the query of ' Why don't you 
go lo the city of Oppression, and tell the people there, 
not to rob the poor?' Might not these reformers 
very justly remark, we cannot go there ztntil we have 
persuaded our own citizens to cease their unholy co- 
operation with them, for tliey will certainly turn upon 
us in bitter irony and say — ' Physician, heal thyself;' 
go back to your own city, and tell your own citizens 
* lo break olf their sins by righteousness, and their 
transgressions by showing mercy to the poor,' who 
fly from our city into the gates of theirs for protection, 
but receive it not. Would not common sense bear 
them out in refusing to go there, until they had first 
converted their own people from the error of their 
ways? I will leave thee and my other readers to 
make the apjjlication of this comparison ; and if thou 
dost not acknowledge that abolitionists have been 
governed by the soundest common sense in the course 
they have pursued at the North with regard to slave- 
ry, then I am very much disappointed in thy profes- 
sions of eandor. With regard to the parallel thou 
liasl drawn (p. 16,) between abolitionists, and the 
* men (who)are daily going into the streets, and calling 
all bystanders around them ' and pointing out certain 
men, some as liars, some as dishonest, some as licen- 
tious, and then briuging proofs of their guilt and re- 
bukmg them before all; at the same time exhorting 
all around to point at them the finger of scorn;' thou 
sayest, ' they persevere in this course till the whole 
community is thrown into an uproar; and assaults 



THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 25 

and even bloodshed ensue.' But why, I should like 
to know, if these people are themselves guiltless of 
the crimes allesfed ao-ainst the others ? I cannot un- 
derstand wh}^ they should be so angry, unless, like 
the Jews of old, they perceived that the parable had 
been spoken ' against them.'' To my own mind, the 
exasperation of the North at the discussion of slavery 
is an undeniable proof of her guilt, a certain evidence 
of the necessity of her plucking the beam out of her 
own eye, before she goes to the South to rebuke sin 
there. To thee, and to all who are continually 
crying out, ' Why don't you go to the South?' I re- 
tort the question by asking, why don't you go to the 
South ? We conscientiously believe that this work 
must be commenced here at the North ; this is an 
all-sufficient answer for us ; but you, w^ho are ' as 
much anti-slavery as w^e are,' and differ only as to 
the modus operandi, believing that the South and ?zo? 
the North ought to be the field of Anti-Slavery labors 
— YOU, I say, have no excuse to offer, and are bound 
to go there now. 

But there is another view to be taken of this sub- 
ject. By all our printing and talking at the North. 
we have actually reached the very heart of the disease 
at the South. They acknowledge it themselves. 
Read the following confession in the Southern Lite- 
rary Review. ' There are many good men even 
among us^ who have begun to grow timid. They 
think that what the virtuous and high-minded men 
of the North look upon as a crime and a plague-spot, 
cannot be perfectly innocent or quitte harmless in a 
slaveholding community.' James Smylie, of Missis- 
3 



26 CONNECTION BETWEEN 

sippi, a minister of the gospel, so called, tells us on 
the very first page of his essay, written to uphold the 
docirines of Governor McDuffie, ' that the abolition 
maxim, viz. that slavery is iti itself sinful, had gained 
on and entwined itself among the religious and con- 
scientious scruples of many in the community, so far 
as to render them unhapjnj.^ I could quote other 
southern testimony to the same effect, but will pass 
on to another fact just published in the New England 
Spectator; a proposition from a minister in Missouri 
• to have separate organizations for slavery and anti- 
slavery professors,' and indeed * all over the slave- 
holding States.' Has our labor then been in vain 
in the Lord ? Have we failed to rouse the slumbering 
consciences of the South? 

Thou inquires! — ' Have the northern States power 
to rectify evils at the South, as they have to remove 
their own moral deformities?' I answer unhesitat- 
ingly, certainly they have, for moral evils can be re- 
moved only by moral power ; and the close connec- 
tion which exists between these tAvo portions of our 
country, affords the greatest possible facilities for ex- 
erting a moral influence on it. Only let the North 
exert as much moral infltience over the South, as the 
South has exerted demoralizing influence over the 
North, and slavery would die amid the flame of 
Christian remonstrance, and faithful rebuke, and holy- 
indignation. The South has told us so. In the re- 
port of the committee on federal relations in the Leo-- 
islature of South Carolina last winter, we find the 
following acknowledgement: 'Let it be admitted, 
that by reason of an efhcient police and judicious in- 



THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 



27 



ternal legislation, we may render abortive the designs 
of the fanatic and incendiary within our limits, and 
that the torrent of pamphlets and tracts which the 
abolition presses of the North are pouring forth with 
an inexhaustible copiousness, is arrested the moment 
it reaches our frontier. Are we to wait until our 
enemies have built up, by the grossest misrepresenta- 
tions and falsehoods, a body of public opinion, which 
it would be impossible to resist, without separating 
ourselves from the social system of the rest of the 
civilized world?' Here is the acknowledgement of a 
southern legislature, that it will be impossible for the 
South to resist the ijifluence of that body of public 
opinion, w^hich abolitionists are building up against 
them at the North. If further evidence is needed, 
that anti-slavery societies are producing a powerful 
influence at the South, look at the efforts made there 
to vilify and crush them. V/hy all this turmoil, and 
passion, and rage in the slaveholder, if we have indeed 
rolled back the cause of emancipation 200 years, as 
thy father has asserted? Why all this terror at the 
distant roar of free discussion, if they feel not the 
earth quaking beneath them 1 Does not the South 
understand what really will afTect her interests and 
break down her domestic institution ? Has she no 
subtle politicians, no far-sighted men in her borders, 
who can scan the practical bearings of these troublous 
times ? Believe me, she has ; and did they not know 
that we are springing a mine beneath the great bastile 
of slavery, and laying a train which will soon whelm 
it in ruin, she would not be quite so eager * to cut out 
our tongues, and hang us as high as Haman.' 



29 CONNECTION BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 

I will ju.-t :u1l1, iliat as to the committee saying 
that abolitionists arc building; up a bod}^ of public 
opinion at the North ' by the grossest misrepresenta- 
tions and falsehoods,' I think it was due to their 
character for veracity, to have cited and refuted some 
of these calumnies. Until they do, we must believe 
them ; and as a Southerner, I can bear the most de- 
cided testimony against slavery as the mother of all 
abominations. Farewell for the present. 

I remain thy friend, 

A. E. GRIMKE. 



LETTER V. 



CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF ABOLITIONISM. 

Newburyport, 1th mo. 8th, 1837. 

DexYR Friend : As an Abolitionist, I thank thee for 
the portrait thou hast drawn of the character of those 
with whom I am associated. They deserve all thou 
hast said in their favor ; and I will now endeavor to 
vindicate those ' men of pure morals, of great honesty 
of purpose, of real benevolence and piety,' from some 
objections thou hast urged against their measures. 

' Much evidence,' thou sayest, ' can be brought to 
prove that the character and measures of the Aboli- 
tion Society are not either peaceful or christian in 
tendency, but that they are in their nature calculated 
to generate party spirit, denunciation, recrimination, 
and ansry passion.' Now I solemnly ask thee, wheth- 
er the character and measures of our holy Redeemer 
did not produce exactly the same effects ? Why did 
the Jews lead him to the brow of the hill, that they 
might cast him down headlong ; why did they go about 
to kill him ; why did they seek to lay hands on him, 
if the tendency of his measures was so very pacific ? 



30 CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

Listen, loo, to his own declaration : ' I came not to send 
peace on earth, but a sword ;' the effects of which, he 
expressly said, would be to set the mother against her 
daughter, and the daughter-in-law against her mother- 
in-law. The rebukes Avliich he uttered against sin 
were eminently calculated to produce ' recriminations 
and angry passions,' in all who were determined to 
cleave to their sins ; and they did produce them even 
against ' him who did no sin, neither was guile found 
in his mouih.' He was called a wine-bibber, and a 
glutton, and Beelzebub, and was accused of casting out 
devils by the prince of the devils. Wh}', then, pro- 
test against our measures as unchristian, because they 
do not smooth the pillow of the poor sinner, and lull 
his conscience into fatal security ? The truth is, the 
efforts of abolitionists have stirred up the very same 
spirit which the efforts of all thorough- going reform- 
ers have ever done ; we consider it a certain proof 
that the truths we utter are sharper than any two 
edged sword, and that they are doing the work of con- 
viction in the hearts of our enemies. If it be not so, 
I have greatly mistaken the character of Christianity. 
I consider it pre eminently aggressive ; it waits not to 
be assaulted, but moves on in all the majesty of Truth 
to attack the strong holds of the kingdom of darkness, 
carries the war into the enemy's camp, and throAvs its 
fiery darts into the midst of its embattled hosts. Thou 
seemest to think, on the contrary, that Christianity is 
just such a weak, dependent, puerile creature as thou 
hast described woman to be. In my opinion, thou 
hast robbed both the one and the other of all their 
true di^iity and glory. Thy descriptions may suit 



OF ABOLITIONISM. 31 

the prevailing Christianity of this age, and the general 
character of woman ; and if so, we have great cause 
for shame and confusion of face. 

I feel sorry that thy unkind insinuations against the 
christian cliaracter of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, have ren- 
dered it necessary for me to speak of him individual- 
ly, because what I shall feel bound to say of him may, 
to some like thyself, appear like flattery ; but I must 
do what justice seems so clearly to call for at my 
hands. Thou sayest that ' though he professes a be- 
lief in the christian religion, he is an avowed oppo- 
nent of most of its institutions.' I presume thou art 
here alluding to his views of the ordinances of bap- 
tism and the Lord's supper, and the Sabbath. Permit 
me to remind thee, that in all these opinions, he coin- 
cides entirely with the Society of Friends, whose 
views of the Sabbath never were so ably vindicated 
as by his pen : and the insinuations of hypocrisy 
which thou hast thrown out against him, may with 
just as much truth be cast upon theiJi. The Quakers 
think that these are not christian institutions, but thou 
hast assumed it without any proof at all. Thou say- 
est farther, ' The character and spirit of this man have 
for years been exhibited in the Liberator.' I have 
taken that paper for two years, and therefore under- 
stand its character, and am compelled to acknowledge, 
that harsh and severe as is the language often used, I 
have never seen any expressions which truth did not 
warrant. The abominations of slavery cannot be 
otherwise described. I think Dr. Channing exactly 
portrayed the character of brother Garrison's writings 
when he said, ' That deep feehng of evils, which is 



CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 



necessary to effectual conflict with tlicm, which marks 
God's most powerful messengers to mankind, cannot 
breathe itself in soft and tender accents. The deeply 
moved soul icill speak strongly, and ought to speak 
strongly, so as to move and shake nations.' It is well for 
the slave, and well for this country, that such a man was 
sent to sound the tocsin of alarm before slavery had com- 
pleted its work of moral death in this ' hypocritical na- 
tion.' Garrison begun that discussion of the subject of 
slavery, which J. Q. Adams declared in his oration, de- 
livered in this town on the 4th inst. ' to be the onl}' safe- 
ty-valve by wliich the high pressure boiler of slavery 
could be prevented from a most fatal explosion in this 
country ;' and as a Southerner, I feel truly grateful for 
all his eflbrts to redeem not the slave only, but the 
slaveholder, from the polluting influences of such a 
system of crime. 

In his character as a man and a Christian, I have 
the highest confidence. The assertion thou makest, 
' that there is to be found in that paper, or any thing 
else, any evidence of his possessing the peculiar traits 
of Wilberforce, (benignity, gentleness and kind heart- 
edness, I suppose thou meanest,) not even his w^arm- 
est admirers will maintain,' is altogether new to me ; 
and I for one feel ready to declare, that I have never 
met in any one a more lovely exhibition of these traits 
of character. I might relate several anecdotes in 
proof of this assertion, but let one suflice. A friend 
of mine, a member of the Society of Friends, told me 
that after he became interested in the Anti- Slavery 
cause through the Liberator, he still felt so much pre- 
judice against its editor, that, although he wished to 



OF ABOLITIONISM. 33 

labor in behalf of the slaves, he still felt as if he 
could not identify himself with a society which recog- 
nized such a leader as he had heard Wm. L. Garri- 
son was. He had never seen him, and after many 
struggles of feeling, determined to go to Boston on 
purpose to see ' this man,' and judge of his character 
for himself. He did so, and when he entered the of- 
fice of the Liberator, soon fell into conversation with 
a person he did not know, and became very much in- 
terested in him. After some time, a third person 
came in and called off the attention of the stranger, 
whose benevolent countenance and benignant manners 
he had so much admired. He soon heard him ad- 
dressed as Mr. Garrison, which astonished him very 
much ; for he had expected to see some coarse, un- 
couth and rugged creature, instead of the perfect gen- 
tleman he now learned was Wm. L. Garrison. He 
told me that the effect upon his mind was so great, 
that he sat down and wept to think he had allowed 
himself to be to prejudiced against a person, who was 
so entirely different from what his enemies had repre- 
sented him to be. He at once felt as if he could most 
cheerfully labor, heart and hand, with such a man, 
and has for the last three or four years been a faithful 
co-worker with him, in the holy cause of immediate 
emancipation. And his confidence in him as a man 
of pure, christian principle, has grown stronger and 
stronger, as time has advanced, and circumstances 
have developed his true character. I think it is im- 
possible thou canst be personally acquainted with 
brother Garrison, or thou wouldst not write of him in 
the way thou hast. If thou really wishest to have 



34 CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF ABOLITIONISM. 

thy erroneous opinions removed, embrace the first op- 
poriuniiy of being introduced to him ; for I can assure 
ihee, that with the fire of a Paul, he does possess some 
of the most lovely traits in the character of Wilber- 
force. 

In much haste, I remain thy friend, 

A. E. GRIMKE. 



LETTER VI. 



COLONIZATION. 



Amesbury, 1th mo. 20th, 1837. 
Dear Friend : The aggressive spirit of Anti-Slavery 
papers and pamphlets, of which thou dost complain, so 
far from being a repulsive one to me, is very attrac- 
tive. I see in it that uncompromising integrity and 
fearless rebuke of sin, which will bear the enterprize 
of emancipation through to its consummation. And I 
most heartily desire to see these publications scatter- 
ed over our land as abundantly as the leaves of Au- 
tumn, believing as I do that the principles they pro- 
mulgate will be as leaves for the healing of this na- 
tion. 

I proceed to examine thy objections to * one of the 
first measures of Abolitionists:' their attack on a be- 
nevolent society. 

That the Colonization Society is a benevolent insti- 
tution, we deny : therefore our attack upon it was not 
a sacrilegious one ; it was absolutely necessary, in or- 
der to disabuse the public mind of the false views they 
entertained of its character. And it is a perfect mys- 



36 COLONIZATION. 

tcry lo mc liow men and women can conscientiously 
persevere in u])holJing a society, which the very ob- 
jects of its professed benevolence have repeatedly, sol- 
emnl}', constantly and universally condemned. To 
say the least, this is a very suspicious kind of benev- 
olence, and seems too nearly allied to that, which in- 
duces some southern professors to keep their brethren 
in bonds /or their benefit. Yes, the free colored peo- 
ple are to be exiled, because public opinion is crushing 
them into the dust ; instead of their friends protesting 
against that corrupt and unreasonable prejudice, and 
living it down by a practical acknowledgement of their 
right to every privilege, social, civil and religious, 
which is enjoyed by the white man. I have never 
yet been able to learn, how our hatred to our colored 
brother is to be destroyed by driving him away from 
us. I am told that when a colored republic is built 
up on the coast of Africa, then we shall respect that 
republic, and acknowledge that the character of the 
colored man can be elevated ; we will become con- 
nected with it in a commercial point of view, and wel- 
come it to the sympathies of our hearts. Miserable 
sophistry ! deceitful apology for present indulgence in 
sm ! What man or woman of common sense now 
doubts the intellectual capacity of the colored people ? 
Who does not know, that with all our efforts as a na- 
tion to crush and ^annihilate the mind of this portion 
of our race,' we have never yet been able to do it ^ 
Henry Berry of Virginia, in his speech in the Legis- 
lature of that State, in 1S32, expressly acknowledged, 
that although slaveholders had 'as far as possible clos- 
ed every avenue by which light might enter their 



COLONIZATION. 37 

minds,' yet that they never had found out the process 
by -which they ' could extinguish the capacity to see 
the light.' No I that capacity remains — it is inde- 
structible — an integral part of their nature, as moral 
and immortal beings. 

If it is true that white Americans only need a de- 
monstration of the colored man's capacity for eleva- 
tion, in order to make them willing to receive him on 
the same platform of human rights upon which they 
stand, why has not the intelligence of the Haytians 
convinced them ? Their free republic has grown up 
under the very eye of the slaveholder, and as a nation 
Ave have for many years been carrying on a lucrative 
trade with her merchants ; and yet we have never re- 
cognized her independence, never sent a minister 
there, though we have sent ambassadors to European 
countries whose commerce is far less important to us 
us than that of St. Domingo.^ 

These professions of a wish to plant the tree of 
Liberty on the shores of Africa, in order to convince 
our Republican Despotism of the high moral and in- 
tellectual worth of the colored man, are perfectly ab- 

* Although there are some who like to discant on the 
worthless character of the Haytians, and the miserable con- 
dition of the Island, yet it is an indisputuble fact, that a pop- 
ulation of nearly 1,000,000 are supported on its soil, and that 
in 1833, the value of its exports to the United States exceed- 
ed in value those of Prussia, Sweden, and Norway— Denmark 
and the Danish West Indies— Ireland and Scotland— Holland 
— Belgium- Dutch East Indies— British West Indies— Spain 
—Portugal— all Italy— Turkey and the Levant, or any one 
Republic in South America. 

4 



r^^ COLONIZATION. 

surd. Hayii has done that long ago. A friend of 
mine (not an Abolitionist) whose business called 'him 
ID that island for several months, told me that in the 
society of its citizens, he often felt his own inferiority. 
He was astonished at the elegance of their manners, 
and the intelligence of their conversation. Instead of 
going into an examination of Colonization principles, 
I refer thee to the Appeal to the Women of the nom- 
inally free States, issued by the Convention of Amer- 
ican Women, in which we set forth our reasons for 
repudiating them. 

Thou hast given a specimen of the manner in 
which Abolitionists deal with their Colonization oppo- 
nents. Thy friend remarked, after an interview with 
an abolitionist, ' I love truth and sound argument ; but 
when a man comes at me with a sledge hammer, I 
cannot help dodging.' I presume thy friend only felt 
the truth of the prophet's declaration, ' Is not my word 
like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that 
breaketh the rock in pieces ?' I wonder not that he 
did dodge, when the sledge hammer of truth was wield- 
ed by an abolition army. Many a Colonizationist has 
been compelled to dodge, in order to escape the blows of 
this hammer of the Lord's word, for there is no other way 
to get clear. We must either dodge the arguments of ab- 
olitionists, or like J. G. Birney, Edward C. Delevan, 
and many others, be willing to be broken to pieces by 
them. I greatly like this specimen of private dealing, 
and hope it is not the only instance which has come 
under thy notice, of Colonizationists acknowledging 
the absolute necessity of dodging Anti-Slavery argu- 
ments, when they were unwilling that \\\e rock of pre^ 
:^7idhc should be broken to pieces by them. 



COLONIZATION. 39 

Thy next complaint is against the manner in which 
this benevolent Expatriation Society was attacked. 
' The style in which the thing was done was at once 
offensive, inflammatory and exasperating,' — ' the feel- 
ings of many sincere, upright, and conscientious men 
were harrowed by a sense of the injustice, the inde- 
corum and the unchristian treatment they received.' 
But why, if they were entirely innocent of the charges 
brought against Colonizationists ? I have been in the 
habit, for several years past, of watching the workings 
of my own mind under true and false charges against 
myself; and my experience is, that the more clear I 
am of the charge, the less I care about it. If I really 
feel a sweet assurance that ' my witness is in heaven 
— my record is on high,' I then realize to its fullest 
extent that ' it is a small thing to be judged of marCs 
judgment,' and I can bear/aZ^e charges unmoved ; but 
true ones always nettle me, if I am unwilling to con- 
fess that ' I have sinned ;' if I am, and yield to con- 
viction, O then ! how sweet the reward ! Now I am 
very much afraid that these sincere, upright and con- 
scientious Colonizationists are something like the 'pi- 
ous ^professors of the South, who are very angry be- 
cause abolitionists say that all slaveholders are men- 
stealers. Both find it 'hard to kick against the pricks' 
of conviction, and both are unwilling to repent. A 
northern man remarked to a Virginia slaveholder last 
winter, ' that as the South denied the charges brought 
against her by abolitionists, he could not understand 
why she w^as so enraged ; for,' continued he, ' if you 
were to accuse us at the North of being sheep-stealers, 
we should not care about the charge — w^e should ridi- 



40 COLONIZATION. 

cule it.' '0 !' said the Virginian with an oath, ' what 
the abolitionists say about slaveholders is too true, 
and that's the reason we are vexed.' Is not this the 
reason why our Colonization brethren and sisters are 
so angry ? Ls not what we say of them also too true ? 
Lei them examine these things with the bible and 
prayer, and settle this question between God and their 
own souls. 

Every true friend of the oppressed American has 
great cause to rejoice, that the cloak of benevolence 
has been torn off from the monster Prejudice, which 
could love the colored man after he got to Africa, but 
seemed to delight lo pour contumely upon him whilst 
he remained in the land of his birth. I confess it 
would be very hard for me to believe that any associa- 
tion of men and women loved me or my family, if, be- 
cause we had become obnoxious to them, they were to 
meet together, and concentrate their energies and pour 
out their money for the purpose of transporting us back 
to France, whence our Hugenot fathers fled to this 
couiryn to escape the storm of persecutions. Why not 
let us live in America, if you really love us ? Surely 
you jiever want to ' get rid ' of people whom you love. 
I like to have such near me ; and it is because I love 
the colored Americans, that I want them to stay in 
this country ; and in order to make it a happy home 
to them, I am trying to talk down, and write down, and 
live down this horrible prejudice. Sending a few to 
Africa cannot destroy it. No— we must dig up the 
weed by the roots out of each of our hearts. It is a 
sin, and we must repeal of it and forsake it— and then 



COLONIZATION. 41 

Vve shall no longer be so anxious to ' be clear of them ^ 

* to get rid of them.'' 

Hoping, though against hope, that thou mayest one 

day know how precious is the reward of those who 

can love our oppressed brethren and sisters in this day 

of their calamity, and who, despising the shame of be* 

ing identified with these peeled and scattered? ones, 

rejoice to stand side by side with them, in the glorious 

conflict between Slavery and Freedom, Prejudice and 

Love unfeigned, I remain thine in the bonds of uni-» 

versal love, / 

A. E. GRIMKE, 

4^ 



LETTER VII. 



PREJUDICE. 



Haverhill, Mass. 1th mo. 23, 1S37. 

Dear Friend : — Thou sayest, ' the best way to 
make a person like a thing which is disagreeable, is 
to try in some way to make it agreeable.' So, then, 
instead of convincing a person by sound argument 
and pointed rebuke that sin is sin^ we are to disguise 
the opposite virtue in such a way as to make him like 
that, in preference to the sin he had so dearly loved. 
We are to cheat a sinner out of his sin, rather than 
to compel him, under the stings of conviction, to give 
it up from deep- rooted principle. 

If this is the course pursued by ministers, then I 
wonder not at the kind of converts wliich are broug-ht 
into the church at the present day. Thy remarks 
on the subject of prejudice, show but too plainly how 
strongly thy own mind is imbued with it, and how 
little thy colonization principles have done to extermi- 
nate this feeling from thy own bosom. Thou sayest, 
'if a certain cla^s of persons is the subject of unrea- 
sonable prejudicf, the peaceful and christian way of 
removing it would be to endeavor to render the un- 



PREJUDICE. 43 

fortunate persons who compose this class, so useful, 
so humble^ so unassuming, &c. that prejudice would 
be supplanted by complacenc}'' in their goodness, and 
pity and sympathy for their disabilities.' ' If the 
friends of the blacks had quietly set themselves to 
work to increase their intelligence, their usefulness, 
&c. and then had appealed to the pity and benevc* 
lence of their fellow citizens, a very different result 
would have appeared.' Or in other words, if one 
person is guilty of a sin against another person, I am 
to let the sinner go entirely unreproved, but to per- 
suade the injured party to bear with humility and 
patience all the outrages that are inflicted upon him, 
and thus try to soothe the sinner ' into complacency 
with their goodness' in 'bearing all things, and en- 
during all things.' Well, suppose I succeed: — is 
that sinner won from the evil of his ways hy priiici- 
pie ? No ! Has he the principle of love implanted 
in his breast ? No ! Instead of being in love with 
the virtue exhibited by the individual, because it is 
virtue, he is delighted with the personal convenience 
he experiences from the exercise of that virtue. He 
feels kindly toward the individual, because he is an 
instrument of his enjoyment, a mere meafis to promote 
his wishes. There is 7io reformation there at all. 
And so the colored people are to be taught to be ' very 
humble' and ' unassuming,' ' gentle' and ' meek,' and 
then the 'pity and generosity' of their fellow citizens are 
to be appealed to. Now, no one who knows anything 
of the influence of Abolitionists over the colored peo- 
ple, can deny that it has been peaceful and christian ; 
had it not been so, they never would have seen those 



44 PREJUDICE. 

whom they had regarded as their best friends, mobbed 
and persecuted, without raising an arm in their de- 
fence. Look, too, at the rapid spread of thorough. 
temperance principles among them, and their moral 
reform and other laudable and useful associations ; 
look at the rising character of this people, the new 
life and energy which have been infused into them. 
"Who have done it? Who have exerted by far the 
greatest influence on these oppressed Americans ? I 
leave thee to answer. I will give thee one instance 
of this salutary influence. In a letter I received from 
one of my colored sisters, she incidentally makes this 
remark: — ' Until very lately, I have lived and acted 
more for myself than for the good of others. I con- 
fess that I am wholly indebted to the Abolition cause 
for arousing me from apathy and indifference, and 
shedding light into a mind which has been too long 
wrapt in selfish darkness.' The Abolition cause has 
exerted a powerful and healthful influence over this 
class of our population, and it has been done by 
quietly going into the midst of them, and identifying 
ourselves with them. 

But Abolitionists are complained of, because they, 
at the same time, fearlessly exposed the sin of the 
unreasonable and unholy prejudice which existed 
against these injured ones. Thou sayest 'that re- 
proaches, rebukes and sneers were employed to con- 
rince the whites that their prejudices were sinful, and 
without any just cause.' Without any just cause! 
Couldst thou think so, if thou really loved thy colored 
sisters as thyself? The unmeasured abuse which 
the Colonization Society was heaping upon this de- 



PREJITDICE. 45 

spised people, was no just cause for pointed rebuke, I 
suppose ! The manner in which they are thrast into 
one corner of our meeting-houses, as if the plague- 
spot was on their skins ; the rudeness and cruelty 
with which they are treated in our hotels, and steam- 
boats, rail road cars and stages, is no just cause of 
reproach to a professed christian community, I pre- 
sume. Well, all that I can say is, that I believe if 
Isaiah or James were now alive, they would pour 
their reproaches and rebukes upon the heads and 
hearts of those who are thus despising the Lord's 
poor, and saying to those whose spirits are clothed 
by God in the ' vile raiment' of a colored skin. Stand 
thou there in yonder gallery, or sit thou here in ' the 
negro-pew.' ' Sneers,' too^ are complained of. Have 
abolitionists ever made use of greater sarcasm and 
irony than did the prophet Elijah ? When things 
are ridiculous as well d- wicked, it is unreasonable 
to expect that every cast of mind will treat them with 
solemnity. And what is more ridiculous than Amer- 
ican prejudice ; to proscribe and persecute men and 
women, because their complexions are of a darker hue 
than ov.x own 1 Why, it is an outrage upon common 
sense ; and as my brother Thomas S. Grimke remark- 
ed only a few weeks before his death, ' posterity will 
laugh at our prejudices.' Where is the harm, then, 
if abolitionists should laugh now at the wicked ab- 
surdity ? 

Thou sayest, ' this tended to irritate the whites, and 
to increase their prejudices against the blacks.' The 
truth always irritates the proud, impenitent sinner. 
To charge abolitionists with this irritation, is some- 



46 PREJUDICE. 

thing like the charge brought against the English 
government by the captain of the slaver I told thee of 
in my second letter, who threw all his human mer- 
chandize overboard, in order to escape detection, and 
then charged this horrible wholesale murder upon the 
government ; because, said he, they had no business 
to make a law to hang a man if he was found engaged 
in the slave trade. So loe must bear the guilt of 
man's angry passions, because the tr^cth we preach is 
like a two-edged sword, cutting through the bonds of 
interest on the one side, and the cords of caste on the 
other. 

As to our increasing the prejudice against color, 
this is just like the North telling us that we have in- 
creased the miseries of the slave. Common sense 
cries out against the one as well as the other. With 
regard to prejudice, I believe the truth of the case to 
be this : the rights of the colored man never were ad- 
vocated by any body of men in their length and 
breadth, before the rise of the Anti-Slavery Society 
in this country. The propagation of these ultra prin- 
ciples has produced in the northern States exactly the 
same effect, w^hich the promulgation of the doctrine 
of immediate emancipation has done in the southern 
States. It has developed the latent principles of pride 
and prejudice, not loroduced them. Hear John Green, 
a Judge of the Circuit Court of Kentucky, in reference 
to abolition efforts having given birth to the opposition 
against emancipation now existing in the South: 'I 
would rather say, it has been the means of manifesting 
that opposition, which previously existed, but laid 
dormant for want of an exciting cause.' And just 



PREJUDICE. 47 

SO has it been with regard to prejudice at the North 
— when there was no effort to obtain for the colored 
man his riglds as a man, as an American citizen, there 
was no opposition exhibited, because it ' laid dormant 
for want of an exciting cause.' 

I know it is alleged that some individuals, who 
treated colored people with the greatest kindness a few 
years ago, have, since abolition movements, had their 
feelings so embittered towards them, that they have 
withdrawn that kindness. Now I would ask, could 
such people have acted from prmciple ? Certainly 
not ; or nothing that others could do or say would 
have driven them from the high ground they appear- 
ed to occupy. No, my friend, they acted precisely 
upon the false principle which thou hast recommend- 
ed ; their pity was excited, their sentiments of gene- 
ro.9% were called into exercise, because they regarded 
the colored man as an unfortunate inferior, rather 
than as an outraged and insulted equal. Therefore, 
as soon as abolitionists demanded for the oppressed 
American the very same treatment, upon the high 
ground of human rights, why, then it was instantly 
withdrawn, simply because it never had been conceded 
on the right ground ; and those who had previously 
granted it became afraid, lest, during the sera of abo- 
lition excitement, persons would presume they were 
acting on the fundamental principle of abolitionism — 
the principle of equal rights, irrespective of color or 
condition, instead of on the mere principle of 'pity 
and generosity .^ 

It is truly surprising to find a professing christian 
excusing the unprincipled opposition exhibited in New 



48 PREJUDICE. 

Haven, to the erection of a College for young men of 
color. Are we indeed to succumb to a corrupt public 
sentiment at the North, and the abominations of sla- 
very at the South, by refraining from asserting the 
right of Americans to plant a literary institution in 
New Haven, or New York, or any where on the 
American soil ? Are we to select ' some retired place,' 
where there would be the least prejudice and opposi- 
tion to meet, rather than openly and fearlessly to face 
the American monster, who, like the horse-leach, is 
continually crying give, give, and whose demands are 
only increased by compromise and surrender ? No ! 
there is a spirit abroad in this country, which will not 
consent to barter principle for an unholy peace ; a 
spirit which seeks to be ' pure from the blood of all 
men,' by a bold and christian avowal of truth ; a spirit 
which will not hide God's eternal principles of right 
and wrong, but will stand erect in the storm of human 
passion, prejudice and interest, ' holding forth the light 
of truth in the midst of a crooked and perverse gene- 
ration ;' a spirit which will never slumber nor sleep, 
till man ceases to hold dominion over his fellow crea- 
tures, and the trump of universal liberty rings in every 
forest, and is re-echoed by every mountain and rock. 
Art thou not aware, my friend, that this College 
was projected in the year 1831, previous to the forma- 
tion of the first Anti-Slavery Society, which was or- 
ganized in 1S32 ? How, then, canst thou say that the 
circumstances relative to it occurred ' at a time when 
the public mind was excited on the subject?' I feel 
quite amused at the presiimption which thou appearest 
to think was exhibited by the projectors of this insti- 



PREJUDICE. 49 

tution, in wishing- it to be located in New Haven, 
where was another College ' embracing a large pro- 
portion of southern students,' &c. It was a great of- 
fence, to be sure, for colored men to build a College 
by the walls of the w-hite man's ' College, where half 
the shoe-blacks and waiters were coloi^d men.'' But 
why so ? The other half of the shoe-blacks and wait- 
ers were vohite, I presume ; and if these white servants 
could be satisfied with their humble occupation under 
the roof oi Yale College, why might not the colored 
w^aiters be contented also, though an institution for the 
education of colored Americans might presuine to lift 
its head 'beside the very walls of this College?' Is 
it possible that any professing christian can calmly 
look back at these disgraceful transactions, and tell 
me that such opposition was manifested '/or the best 
reasons V And what is still worse, censure the pro- 
jectorsof a literary institution, in free, republican, en- 
lightened America, because they clid not meekly yield 
to '■such reasonable objections,'' and refused ' to soothe 
the feelings and apprehensions of those who had been 
excited' to opposition and clamor by the simple fact 
that some American born citizens wished to give their 
children a liberal education in a separate College, only 
because the white Americans despised their brethren 
of a darker complexion, and scorned to share with 
them the privileges of Yale College ? It was very 
wrong, to be sure, for the friends of the oppressed 
American to consider such outrageous conduct ' as a 
mark of the force of sinful prejudice !' Vastly un- 
charitable ! Great complaints are made that ' the 

worst motives were ascribed to some of the most re- 
5 



50 "PREJUDICE. 

spectablc, and venerated, and piotis men who opposed 
ihe measure.' Wonderful indeed, that men should 
be found so true to their principles, as to dare in this 
age of sycophancy to declare the truth to those who 
stand in high places, wearing the badges of ofllce or 
honor, and fearlessly to rebuke the puerile and un- 
christian prejudice which existed against their colored 
brethren ! ' Pious men !' Why, I would ask, hoAV 
-are we to judge of men's piety- — by professions or 
products 1 Do men gather thorns of grapes, or thistles 
of figs ? Certainly not. If, then, in the lives of men 
we do not find the fruits of christian principle, we 
have no right, according to our Saviour's criterion^ 
* by their fruits ye shall know them,' to suppose that 
men are really pious who can be perseveringly guilty 
of despising others, and denying them equal rights, 
because they have colored skins. ' A great deal 
was said and done that was calculated to throw 
ihe community into an angry ferment.' Yes, and I 
suppose the friends of the colored man were just as 
guilty as was the great Apostle, who, by the angry, 
and excited, and prejudiced Jews, was accused of 
being ' a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition,' be- 
cause he declared himself called to preach the ever* 
lasting gospel to the Gentiles, whom they considered 
as * dogs,' and utterly unworthy of being placed on the 
same platform of human rights and a glorious immor» 
lality. Thy friend, 

A. E. GRIMKE. 



LETTER VIIL 

VINDICATION OF ABOLITIONISTS^ 

Groton, Mass. 6^A monh, 1837. 

Dear Friend : — In my last, I commented upon the- 
opposition to the establishment of a College in New- 
Haven, Conn., for the education of colored young 
men.- The same remarks are applicable to the perse- 
cutions of the Canterbury School. I leave thee and 
our readers to apply them. I cannot help thinking 
how strange and unaccountable thy soft excuses for 
the sins of prejudice will appear to the next genera- 
tion, if thy book ever reach their eye. 

As to Cincinnati having been chosen as the city m 
which the Philanthropist should be published after the- 
?e treat of its editor from Kentucky, thou hast not been 
' sufficiently informed,' for James G. Birney pursued 
exactly the course which thou hast marked out as the 
most prudent and least offensive. He edited his paper 
at New Richmond, in Ohio, for nearly three months 
before he went to Cincinnati, and did not go there 
until the excitement appeared to have subsided. 

And so, thou thinkest that abolitionists are account- 
able for xhjQ outrae-es which have been committed 



52 \1NDICATI0N 

against them ; they arc the tempters, and are held re- 
sponsible by God, as well as the tempted. Wilt thou 
tell me, who was responsible for the mob which went 
with swords and staves to take an innocent man be- 
fore the tribunals of Annas and Pilate, some ISCO 
years ago ? And who was responsible for the uproar 
at Ephesus, the insurrection at Athens, and the tu- 
mults at Lystra and Iconium ? Were I a mobocrat, I 
should want no better excuse than thou hast furnished 
for such outrages. Wonderful indeed, if, in free 
America, her citizens cannot choose where they will 
erect iheir literary institutions and presses, to advocate 
the self-evident truths of our Declaration of Indepen- 
dence ! And still more wonderful, that a New Eng- 
land woman should, aftcj' years of reflection., deliber- 
ately write a book to condemn the advocates of liberty, 
and plead excuses for a relentless prejudice against 
her colored brethren and sisters, and for the perse- 
cutors of those, who, according to the opinion of a 
Southern member of Congress, are prosecuting ' the 
only plan that can ever overthrow slavery at the 
South.' I am g]ad,j^?- tJty own sake, that thou hast 
exculpated abolitionists from the charge of the ' delib- 
erate intention of fomenting illegal acts of violence.' 
AVould it not have been still better, if thou hadst spared 
the remarks which rendered such an explanation ne- 
cessary ? 

I find that thou wilt not allow of the comparison 
often drawn between the eflects of Christianity on the 
hearts of those who obstinately rejected it, and those 
of abolitionism on the hearts of people of the present 
day. Thou sayest, ' Christianity is a system of per- 



OF ABOLITIONISTS. 53 

suasion, tending- by kind and gentle influences to 
make men ivillmg to leave their sins.' Dost thou 
suppose the Pharisees and Saddiicees deemed it was 
very kind and gentle in its influences, when our holy 
Redeemer called them ' a generation of vipers,' or 
when he preached that sermon ' full of harshiccss, un- 
charitableness, rebuke and denunciation,' recorded in 
the xxiii. chapter of Matthew ? But T shall be told 
that Christ knew the hearts of all men, and therefore 
it was right for him to use terms w^hich mere human 
beings never ought to employ. Read, then, the pro- 
phecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others, and also the 
Epistles of the New Testament. They employed the 
most ofllensive terms on many occasions, and the 
sharpest rebukes, knowing full well that there are 
some sinners who can be reached by nothing but 
death-thrusts at their consciences. An anecdote of 
John Richardson, who was remarkable for his urban- 
ity of manners, occurs to me. He one day preached 
a sermon in a country town, in which he made use of 
some hard language; a friend reproved him after 
meeting, and inquired wdiether he did not know that 
hard wood was split by soft knocks. Yes, said Rich- 
ardson, but I also know that there is some wood so 
rotten at the heart, that nothing but tremendously hard 
blows wall ever split it open. Ah ! John, replied the 
elder, I see thou understandest hoio to do thy master's 
work. Now, I believe this nation is rotten at the 
heart, and that nothing but the most tremendous blows 
with the sledge-hammer of abolition truth, could ever 
have broken the false rest which we had taken up for 
ourselves on the very brink of ruin. 



64 VINDICATION 

' Abolitionism, on llie conlrav}-, is a system of co" 
ercion by public opinion.' By this assertion, I pre- 
sume lliou ' hast not been correctly informed' as to 
the reasons which have induced abolitionists to put 
forth all their energies to rectify public opinion. It 
is 7iot because we wish to wield this public opinion 
like a rod of iron over the heads of slaveholders, to 
coerce ihcm into an abandonment of the system of 
slavery ; not at all. We are striving to purify public 
opinion, first, because as long as the North is so much 
involved in the guilt of slavery, by its political, com- 
mercial, ireligious, and social connexion with the 
South, her own citizens need to be converted. Second, 
because we know that when public opinion is rectified 
at the North, it will throw a flood of light from its 
million of reflecting surfaces upon the heart and soul 
of the South. The South sees full well at what we 
are aiming, and she is so unguarded as to acknowl- 
edge that ' if she does not resist the danger in its 
inception, it will soon become irresistible.' She ex- 
claims in terror, 'the truth is, the 7?207-«Z power of the 
world is against us ; it is idle to disguise it.' The 
fact is, that the slaveholders of the South, and their 
northern apologists, have been overtaken by the storm 
of free discussion, and are something like those who 
go down to the sea and do business in the great 
waters : ' they reel to and fro, and stagger like a 
drunken man, and are at their wit's end.' 

Our view of the doctrine of expediency, thou art 
pleased to pronounce ' wrong and very pernicious in 
its tendency.' Expediency is emphatically the doc- 
trine by which the children of this world are wont to 



OP AHOLITIONISTS. $^ 

guide their steps, whilst the rejection of it as a rule 
of action exactly accords with the divine injunction,- 
to 'walk by faith, not by sight.' Thy doctrine that 
* the wisdom and rectitude of a given course depend 
entirely on the probabilities of success,^ is not the doc- 
trine of the Bible. According to this principle, how 
absurd was the conduct of Moses ! What probability 
of success was there that he could move the heart of 
Pharaoh ? None at all ; and thus did he reason: 
when he said, ' Who am 1, that I should go unto 
Pharaoh ?' And again, ' Behold, they will not believe 
me, nor hearken unto' my voice.' The success of 
Moses's mission in persuading the king of Egypt to" 
' let the people go,' was not involved in the duty of 
ohedience to the divine command. Neither was the 
success of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others of the pro- 
phets who were singularly unsuccessful in their mis= 
sion to the Jews. All who see the path of duty plain 
before them, are bound to walk in that path, end 
where it mr;y. They then can realize the meaning 
of the Apostle, when he exhorts Christians lo cast 
all their burden on the Lord, with the promise that 
He would sustain them. This is walking hy faith, 
not by sight. In the work in which abolitionists are 
engaged, they are compelled to ' walk by faith ;' they 
feel called upon to preach the truth in season and 
out of season, to lift up their voices like a trumpet/ 
to show the people their transgressions and the house 
of Jacob their sins. The success of this mission, theij 
have no more to do with, than had Moses and Aaron, 
Jeremiah or Isaiah, with that of theirs. Whether 
the South will be saved by Anti- Slavery efforts, i& 



56 VINDICATION 

not a question for us to settle — and in some of our 
hearts, the hope of its sahation has utterly gone out. 
All nations have been punished for oppression, and 
why should ours escape ? Our light, and high pro- 
fessions, and the age in which we live, convict us 
not only of enormous oppression, but of the vilest 
hypocrisy. It may be that the rejection of the truth 
which we are now pouring" in upon the South, may 
be the final filling up of their iniquities, just previous 
to the bursting of God's exterminating thunders over 
iho Sodoms and Gomorrahs, the Admahs and Ze- 
boims of America. The result of our labors is hidden 
from our eyes ; whether the preaching of Anti-Sla- 
very truth is to be a savor of life unto life, or of 
death unto death to this nation, we know not ; and 
we have no more to do with it, than had the Apostle 
Paul, when he preached Christ to the people of his 
day. 

If American Slavery goes down in blood, it will 
but verify the declarations of those who uphold it. A 
committee of the North Carolina Legislature ac- 
knowledged this to an English Friend ten years ago. 
Jefllerson more than once uttered his gloomy fore- 
bodings ; and the Legislators of Virginia, in 1832, 
declared that if the opportunity of escape, throuoh 
the means of emancipation, were rejected, ' though 
they might save themselves, they would rear their pos- 
terity to the business of the dagger and the torch.' I 
liave myself known several families to leave the 
South, solely from a fear of insurrection; and this 
twelve and fourteen years ago, long before any Anti- 
Slavery efforts were made in this country. 'And 



OF ABOLITIONISTS. 57 

yet, I presume, «/ through the cold-hearted apathy and 
obstinate opposition of the North, the South should 
become strengthened in her desperate determination 
to hold on to her outraged victims, until they are 
goaded to despair, and if the Lord in his wrath pours 
out the vials of his vengeance upon the slave States, 
why then, Abolitionists will have to bear all the 
blame. Thou hast drawn a frightful picture of the 
final issue of Anti-Slavery efforts, as thou art pleased 
to call it ; but none of these things move me,' for 
with just as much truth mayest thou point to the land 
of Egypt, blackened by God's avenging fires, and ex- 
claim, ' Behold the issue of Moses's mission.' Nay, 
verily ! See in that smoking, and blood-drenched 
house of bondage, the consequences of oppression, 
disobedience, and an obstinate rejection of truth, and 
light, and love. What had Moses to do with those 
judgment plagues, except to lift his rod 1 And if 
the South soon finds her winding sheet iu garments 
rolled in blood, it will not be because of what the 
North has told her, but because, like impenitent Egypt, 
she hardened her heart against it, whilst the voices 
of some of her own children were crying in agony, 
' ! that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy 
day, the things which belong to thy peace ; but nov/ 
they are hid from thine eyes.' 

Thy friend, A. E. GRIMKE. 



LETTER IX. 

EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

Brookline, Mass. Sih months 17tk, 1S37. 

Dear Friend : — Thou sayest ' There are cases also, 
where differences in age, and station, and character, 
forbid all interference to modify the conduct and char- 
acter of others.' Let us bring this to the only touch- 
stone by which Christians should try their principles 
of action. 

How was it when God designed to j:id his people 
out of the hands of the Egyptian monarch ? Was his 
station so exalted ' as to forbid all interference to mod- 
ify his character and conduct V And who was sent to 
interfere with his conduct towards a stricken people ? 
Was it some brotlier monarch of exalted station, 
whose elevated rank might serve to excuse such in- 
terference «to modify his conduct and character?' 
No. It was an obscnre shepherd of Midian's desert; 
for let us remember, that Moses, in pleading the cause 
of the Israelites, identified himself with the lotvest and 
meanest of the King's subjects. Ah ! he was one of 
that despised caste; for, although brought up as the 
son of the princess, yet he had left Egypt as an out- 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTfi. 59 

law. He had committed the crime of murder, and 
fled because the monarch ' sought to slay him.' This 
exiled outlaw is the instrument chosen by God to vin- 
dicate the cause of his oppressed people. Moses was 
in the sight of Pharaoh as much an object of scorn, 
as Garrison noiv is to the tyrants of America. Some 
seem to think, that great moral enterprises can be 
made honorable only by Doctors of Divinity, and 
Presidents of Colleges, engaging in them : when all 
powerful Truth cannot be dignified by any man, but 
it dignifies and ennobles all who embrace it. It lifts 
the beggar from the dunghill, and sets him among 
princes. Whilst it needs no great names to bear it 
onward to its glorious consummation, it is continually 
making great characters out of apparently mean and 
unpromising materials ; and in the intensity of its 
piercing rays, revealing to the amazement of many, 
the insignificance and moral littleness of those who 
fill the hig'hes't stations in Church and State. 

But take a few more examples from the bible, »of 
those in high stations being reproved by men of in- 
ferior rank. Look at David rebuked by Nathan, 
Ahab and Jezebel by Elijah and Micaiah. What, 
too, was the conduct of Daniel and Shadrach, Me* 
shack and Abednego, but ^ipractical rebuke of Darius 
and Nebuchadnezzar? And who were these men, 
apart from these acts of daring interference ? They 
were the Lord's prophets, I shall be told ; but what 
cared those monarchs for this fact ? How much credit 
did they give them for holding this holy office ? None. 
And why ? Because all but David were impenitent 
sinners, and rejected with scorn all ' interference to 



^0 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

modify their conduct or cliaracters.' Eeformers are 
rarely estimated in the age in which they live, 
whether they be called prophets or apostles, or aboli- 
tionists;, or what not. They stand on the rock of 
Truth, and cahnly look down upon the carccrino- 
thunder-clouds, the tempest, and the roaring waves, 
because they well know that where the atmosphere 
is surcharged with pestilential vapors, a conflict of 
the elements miist take place, before it can be purified 
by that moral electricit}-, beautifiilly typified by the 
cloven tongues that sat upon each of the heads of the 
120 disciples who were convened on the day of Pen- 
tecost. Such men and w^omen expect to be ' blamed 
and opposed, because their measures are deemed in- 
expedient, and calculated to increase rather than di- 
minish the evil to be cured.' They know full well, 
that intellectual greatness cannot give vioral percep- 
tion — therefore, those icho have no clear vieics of the 
irresistiblencss of moral poicer, ca?mot see the efficacy 
of moral mea?is. They say with the apos.le, ' The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God ; for they are foolishness unto him : neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' 
We know full well, that northern men and w^omen 
laugh at the inefficacy of Anti-Slavery measures ; 
hut slaveholders never have ridiculed them : not that 
their moral perceptions are any clearer than those of 
our northern opponents, but where men's interests 
and lust of power are immediately afTected by moral 
cfTort, they instinctively feel that it is so, and tremble 
for the result. 

But suppose even that our measures were calc.u- 



EFFECT OF ABOLITIONISM 61 

lated to increase the evils of slavery. Tlie measures 
achpteJ by Moses, and sanctioned by God, increased 
the burdens of the Israelites. Were the}^ therefore, 
inexpedient ? And yet, if our measures produce a 
similar effect, O then ! they are very inexpedient in- 
deed. The truth is, when we look at Moses and his 
measures, v/e look at them in connection with the 
eniancipation of the Israelites. The ultimate and 
glorious success of the measures proves their wisdom 
and expediency. But when Anti-Slavery measures 
are looked at 'now, we see them long before the end 
is accomplished. We see, according to thy account, 
t;]e burdens increased ; but we do not yet see the 
triumphant march through the Red Sea, nor do we 
hear the song of joy and thanksgiving which ascended 
from Israel's redeemed host. But canst thou not 
give us twenty 3'ears to com.plete our work? Clark- 
son, thy much admired model, worked twenty years; 
and the benevolent Colonization Society has been in 
operation twenty years. Just give us as long a time, 
or half that time, and then thou wilt be a far better 
judge of the expediency or inexpediency of our meas- 
ures. Then thou wilt be able to look at them in 
connection with their success or their failure, and 
instead of writing a book on thy opinions and my 
opinions, thou canst write a history. 

I cannot agree with thee in the sentiment, that the 
station of a nurserymaid makes it inexpedient for her 
to turn reprover of the master who employs her. 
This is the doctrine of modern aristocracy, not of 
primitive Christianity ; for ecclesiastical history in- 
forms us that, in the first ages of Christianity, kings 
6 



62 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

were converted through the faithful and solemn re- 
bukes of their slaves and captives. I have mN'self 
been reproved by a slave, and I thanked her, and still 
thank her for it. Think how this doctrine robs the 
nursery maid of her responsibility, and shields the 
master from reproof; for it may be that she alone 
has seen him ill-treat his wife. Now it appears to 
me, so far from her station forbidding all interference 
to modify the character and conduct of her employer, 
that that station peculiarly qualifies her for the difficult 
and delicate task, because nursery maids often know 
secrets of oppression, which no other persons are fully 
acquainted with. For my part, I believe it is now 
the duty of the slaves of the South to rebuke their 
masters for their robbery, oppression and crime ; and 
so far from believing that such ' reproof would do no 
good, but only evil,' I think it would be attended by 
the happiest results in the main, though I doubt not 
it would occasion soiTie instances of severe personal 
suffering. No station or character can destroy indi- 
vidual responsibility, in the matter of reproving sin. 
I feel that a slave has a right to rebuke me, and so 
has the vilest sinner; and the sincere, humble chris- 
tian will be thankful for rebuke, let it come from 
whom it may. Such, I am confident, never would 
think it inexpedient for their chamber maids to ad- 
minister it, but would endeavor to profit by it. 

Thou askest very gravely, why James G. Birney 
did not go quietly into the southern States, and col- 
lect facts? Indeed! Why should he go to the 
South to collect facts, when .he had lived there forty 
years ? Thou mayest with just as much propriety 



EFEECT ON THE SOUTH. 63 

ask me, why I do not go to the South to collect facts. 
The answer to both questions is obvious : — We have 
lived at the South, as integral parts of the system of 
slavery, and therefore we know from practical obser- 
A^ation and sad experience, quite enough about it al- 
ready. I think it would be absurd for either of us to 
spend our time in such a way. And even if J. G. 
Birney had not lived at the South, why should he 
go there to collect facts, when the Anti-Slavery presses 
are continually throwing them out before the public? 
Look, too, at the Slave Laws ! What more do we 
need to show us the bloody hands and iron heart of 
Slavery ? 

Thou sayest on the 89th page of thy book, * Every 
avenue of approach to the South is shut. No paper, 
pamphlet, or preacher, that touches on that topic, is 
admitted in their bounds.' Thou art greatly mis- 
taken : every avenue of :"-^roach to the South is not 
shut. The American Anti- Slavery Society sends 
between four and five hundred of its publications to 
the South by mail, to subscribers, or as exchange 
papers. One slaveholder in North Carolina, not 
long- since, bought $60 worth of our pamphlets, &c. 
which he distributed in the slave States. Another 
slaveholder from Louisiana, made a large purchase 
of our publications last fall, which he designed to 
distribute among professors of religion who held 
slaves. To these I may add another from South 
Carolina, another from Richmond, Virginia, numbers 
from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, and others 
from New Orleans, besides persons connected with 
at least three Colleges and Theological Seminaries 



61 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

in slave States, have applied for our publications for 
their own use, and for distribution. \Vithin a few 
weeks, the South Carolina Delegation in Congress 
have sent on an order to the publishing Agent of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society, for all the principal 
bound volumes, pamphlets, and periodicals of the 
Society. At the same time, they addressed a very 
courteous letter to J. G. Birney, the Corresponding 
Secretary, propounding nearly a score of queries, 
embracing the principles, designs, plans of operation, 
progress and results of the Society. I know in the 
large cities, such as Charleston and Kjchmond, that 
Anti-Slavery papers are not suffered to reach their 
destination through the mail ; but it is not so in the 
smaller towns. But even in the cities, I doubt not 
they are read by the postmasters and others. The 
South may pretend that she will not read our papers, 
but it is all pretence ; the fact is, she is very anxious 
to sec what we are doing, so that when the mail-bags 
were robbed in Charleston in 1835, / knoio that the 
robbers were very careful to select a few copies of 
each of the publications before they made the bonfire, 
and that these were handed round in a private way 
through the city, so that they were extensively read. 
This Aict I had from a friend of mine who was in 
Charleston at the time, and read the publications 
himself. My relations also wrote me word, that they 
had seen and read tliem. 

In order to show that our discussions and publica- 
tions have already produced a great effect upon many 
individuals in the slave States, I subjoin the following 
detail of facts and testimony now in my possession. 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 65 

My sister, S. M. Grimke, has just received a letter 
from a Southerner residing in the far South, in which 
he says, ' On the 4th of July, the friends of the op \ 
pressed met and contributed six or eight dollars, to 
obtain some copies of Gerrit Smith's letter, and some 
other pamphlets for our own benefit and that of the 
vicinity. The leaven, we think, is beginning to 
work, and we hope that it will ere long purify the 
whole mass of corruption.' 

An intelligent member of the Methodist Church, 
who resides in North Carolina, was recently in the 
city of New York, and told the editor of Zion's 
Watchman, that ' our publications were read with 
great interest at the South — that there w^as great 
curiosity there to see them.' A bookseller also in 
one of the most southern States, only a few months 
ago, ordered a package of our publications. And 
within a very short time, an influential slaveholder 
from the far South, who called at the Anti-Slavery 
Office in New York, said he had had misgivings on 
the subject ever since the formation of the American 
Society — that he saw some of our publications at the 
South three years ago, and is now convinced and has 
emancipated his slaves. 

A correspondent of the Union Herald, a clergyman, 
and a graduate of one of the colleges of Kentucky, 
says, ' I find in this State many who are decidedly 
opposed to slavery— but few indeed take the ground 
that it is right. I trust the cause of human rights is 
onward — laeekly, I receive two copies of the Emanci- 
pator, which " I send out as battering rams, to beat 
down the citadel of oppression.' In a letter to James 
6* 



(jG effect on the south. 

G. Birney, from a gentleman in a slave State, we 
find this declaration : ' Your paper, the Philanthro- 
pist, is regularly distributed here, and as yet works 
no incendiary results ; and indeed, so far as I can 
learn, general satisfaction is here expressed, both as 
to the temper and spirit of the paper, and no disap- 
probation as to the results.' At an Anti-Slavery 
meeting last fall in Philadelphia, a gentleman from 
Delaware was present, who rose and encouraged 
Abolitionists to go on, and said that he could assure 
them the influence of their measures was felt there, 
and their principles were gaining ground secretlyand 
silently. The subject, he informed them, was discuss- 
ed there, and he believed Anti-Slavery lectures could 
be delivered there with safety, and would produce 
important results. Since that time, a lecturer has 
been into that State, and a State Society has been 
formed, the secretary of which was the first editor of 
the Emancipator, and is now pastor of the Baptist 
church in the capital of the State. The North Caro- 
lina Watchman, published at Salisbury, in an article 
on the subject of Abolition, has the following remarks 
of the editor : * It [the abolition party] is the growing 
party at the North : we are inclined to believe, that 
there is even 7nore of it at the South, than prudence 
will permit to be openly avowed.' It rejoices our 
hearts to find that there are some southerners who 
feel and acknowledge the infatuation of the politi- 
cians of the South, and the philanthropy of abolition- 
ists. The Maryville Intelligencer of 1836, exclaims, 
' What sort of madness, produced by a jaundiced and 
distorted conception of the feelings and motives by 



ii 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 67 

which northern aboh'tionists are actuated, can induce 
the southern pohtical press to urge a severance of the 
tie that binds our Union together? To offer rewards 
for those very individuals who stand as mediators be- 
tween masters and slaves, urging the one to be obe- 
dient, and the other to do justice ?' 

A southern Minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, at the session of the New York Annual Con- 
ferencOj in June of 1836, said : ' Don't give up Abo- 
litionism—don't bow dovvn to slavery. You have 
thousands at the South who are secretly praying for 
you.' In a subsequent conversation with the same 
individual, he stated, that the South is not that unit 
of which the pro-slavery party boast — there is a di- 
versity of opinion among them in reference to slavery, 
and the reign of terror alone suppresses the free 
expression of sentiment. That there are thousands 
who believe slaveholding to be sinful, who secretly 
wish the abolitionists success, and believe God will 
bless their efforts. That the ministers of the gospel 
and ecclesiastical bodies who indiscriminately de- 
nounce the abolitionists, without doing any thing 
themselves to remove slavery, have not the thanks of 
thousands at the South, but on the contrary are viewed 
as taking sides with slaveholders^ and recreant to the 
princi'ples of their own profession. — Zion's Watch- 
man^ November, 1836. 

The Christian Mirror, published in Portland, Maine, 
has the following letter from a minister who has lately 
taken up his abode in Kentucky, to a friend in Maine : 
— * Saveral ministers have recently left the State, I 
believe, on account of slavery ; and many of the mem« 



6S EFFECT ON TIIi: SOUTH. 

bors of churches, as I have understood, have sold their 
property, and removed to the free States. Many are 
becoming more and more convinced of the evil and sin 
of slavery, and would gladly rid themselves and the 
community of this scourge ; and I feel confident that 
influences are already in operation, which, if properly 
directed and regulated by the principles of the gospel, 
may ' break every yoke and let the oppressed go free' 
in Kentucky. 

In 1st month, lS3o, when Theodore D. Weld was 
lecturing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the close of 
one of his evening lectures, a man sought him through 
the crowd, and extending his hand to him through his 
friends, by whom he was surrounded, solicited him to 
step aside with him for a moment. After theyhad 
retired by themselves, the gentleman said to him with 
great earnestness, ' I am a slaveholder from Maryland 
— you are right — the doctrine you advocate is truth.'' 
Why, then, said the lecturer, do you not emancipate 
your slaves ? ' Because,' said the Marylander, ' I 
have not religion enough' — He was a professing 
christian — ' I dare not subject myself to the torrent of 
opposition which, from the present state of public sen- 
timent, would be poured upon me ; but do you aboli- 
tionists go on, and you will effect a change in public 
sentiment, which will render it possible and easy for 
us to emancipate our slaves. I know,' continued he, 
* a great "many slaveholders in my State, who stand 
on precisely the same ground that I do in relation to 
this matter. Only produce a correct public sentiment 
at the Northland the icork is done ; for all that keeps 
the South in countenance ichile continuing this sys- 



•:*ai^'W^'W^ 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 69 

tevi, is the apology and argument afforded so gener- 
ally by the North ; only produce a right feeling in 
the North generally, and the South cannot stand be- 
fore it ; let the North be thoroughly converted, and 
the tcork is at once accomplished at the South.'' 
Another fact which may be adduced to prove that the 
South is looking to the North for help, is the follow- 
ing : At an Anti- Slavery concert of prayer for the op- 
pressed, held in New York city, in 1S38, a gentleman 
arose in the course of the meeting, declaring himself 
a Virginian and a slaveholder. He said he came to 
that city filled with the deepest prejudice against the 
abolitionists, by the reports given of their character in 
papers published at the North. But he determined 
to investigate their character and designs for himself. 
He even boarded in the family of an abolitionist, and 
attended the monthly concert of prayer for the slaves 
and the slaveholders. And now, as the result of his 
investigations and observations, he was convinced that 
7iot only the spirit but the principles and measures of 
the abolitionists ARE RIGHTEOUS. He was now 
ready to emancipate his own slaves, and had com- 
menced advocating the doctrine of immediate emanci- 
pation — ' and here,' said he, pointing to two men sitting 
near him, 'are the first fruits of my labors — these two 
fellow Virginians and slaveholders, are converts with 
myself to abolitionism. And I know a thousand Vir- 
ginians, who need only to be made acquainted with 
the true spirit and principles of abolitionists, in order 
to their becoming converts as we are. Let the aboli- 
tionists go 071 in the dissemination of their doctrines^ 
and let the Northern papers cease to misrepresent 



70 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

them at the South — let the true light of abolitionism 
be fully shed upon the Southern ?nind, and the icork 
of immediate and general emancipation loill he speed- 
ily accomplished.' — Morning Star, N. Y. 

A letter from a gentleman in Kentucky to Gerrit 
Smith, dated August, 1836, contains the following ex- 
pressions : — 

' I am fully persuaded, that the voice of the free 
Slates, lifted up in a proper manner against the evil, 
[Slavery] will awaken them [slaveholders] from their 
midnight slumbers, and produce a happy change. I 
rejoice, dear brother in Christ, to hear that you are 
with us, and feel deeply to plead the cause of the op- 
pressed, and undo the heavy burdens. May God bless 
you, and the cause which you pursue.' 

In the summer of 1835, William R. Buford, of Vir- 
ginia, who had then recently emancipated his slaves, 
wrote a letter which was published in the Hampshire 
Gazette, North Hampton, Mass. from which I give 
thee some extracts. 

Dear Sir : — As you are ardently engaged in the 
discussion of Slavery, I think it likely I may be of 
service to you, and through you to the cause which 
you arc advocating. ^' ^ =^ I was born and brought 
up at the South in the midst of slavery, as you know. 
IVly father inherited slaves from his father, and I from 
him. So fnv from thinking slavery a sin, or that I 
had no right to own the slaves inherited from my 
father, 1 thought no one could venture to dispute that 
right, any more than he could my right to his land or 
his stock. I advocated Colonization, as I thought it 
on many accounts a good plan to get rid of such color- 
ed ptTsons as wished to go to Africa ; but my con- 
scirnce as a slaveholder was not much troubled by it. 
Of course, I had no tendency to make me disclaim my 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 71 

right to my slaves. Abolition — immediate abolition, 
began afterwards to be discussed in various parts of 
the country. My right to the slaves I owned began 
to be disputed. 1 had to defend myself. In vain did 
I say I inherited my slaves from a pious father, who 
seemed to be governed in his dealings by a sense of 
duty to his slaves. In vain did I say that nearly all 
my property consisted in slaves, and to free them 
would make me a poor man. My duty to emancipate 
vv^as still urged. At length my eyes were opened — 
partly by the arguments used by the abolitionists : but 
mainly, by long being compelled hy them to examine 
the subject for myself. No longer could I close my 
eyes to the evils of slavery, nor could I any longer 
despise the abolitionists, ' the only true friends of their 
country and kind.' I now think, I know, I have no 
more right to own slaves, whether I inherited them or 
not, than I hav^e to encourage the African slave trade. 
By declaring this sentiment, I expect and design to 
abet the cause of Abolition at the North, and through 
the North the emancipation of the slaves at the South. 
I know that in doing this, I condemn the South. No 
one can suppose, however, that I have any unkind 
feelings towards the South. All my relatives live 
in the slaveholding States, and are almost all slave- 
holders. 

I think the abolitionists have done, and are doing a 
great deal of good, by holding slavery up to the pub- 
lic gaze. Sentiment at the North on the subject of 
slavery must have the same effect on the South, that 
their opinions have on any other matter.' 

The wTiter of the foregoing is, as I am told, still a 
resident of Virginia, where he has long been known, 
and is highly respected. 

In the 11th month, 183o, the United States Tele- 
graph, published at Washington city, contains the fol- 
lowing remarks by the Editor, Duff Green. 



72 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH 

' We are of those who believe the South has nothing 
to fear from a servile war. We do not believe that 
the abolitionists intend, nor could they if they would, 
excite the slaves to insurrection. The danger of this 
is remote. We believe that we have most to fear 
from the organised action vpon the consciences and 
fears of the slaveholders themselves ; from the imin- 
uatiojis of their dangerous heresies into our schools, 
our pulpits, and our domestic circles. It is onhj hy 
alarming the consciences of the weak and feehle, and 
diffusing among our oivn people a morbid sensibiliiy 
oil the questimi of slavery, that the abolitionists can 
accomplish their object. Puepaiiatory to this, they 
are now laborinir to saturate the non-slaveholding 
States with the belief that slavery is a ' sin against 
God.' We must meet the question in all its bearings. 
We must SATISFY the CONSCIENCES, we must allay the 
fears of our own people. We must satisfy them that 
slavery is of itself right — that it is not a sin against 
God— that it is not an evil, moral or political. To 
do this, we must discuss the subject of slavery itself. 
We must examine its bearing upon the moral, politi- 
cal, and religious institutions of the country. In this 
way, and this way only, can we prepare our own peo- 
ple to defend their own institutions.' 

In another number of the same paper, the Editor 

says, 

* We hold that our sole reliance is on ourselves ; 
that we have most to fear Jrom the gradual operation 
on public opinion among oitr selves ; and that those are 
the most insidious and dangerous invader^ of our 
rights and interests, who, coming to us in the guise of 
friendship, endeavor to persuade us that slavery is a 
sin, a curse, an evil. It is not true that the South 
sleeps on a volcano — that we are afraid to go to bed 
at night — that we are fearful of murder and pillage. 
Our greatest cause of apprehension is from the ope- 
ration of [the morbid sensibility ichich appeals to the 



EFFECT ON THE SOU TH. 73 

conscieyices of our oiun people, and would make them 
the voluntary instruments of their own ruin.' 

In 1835, 1 think about the close of the year, a series 
of articles on Slavery appeared in the Lexington (Ken- 
tucky) Intelligencer. In one of the numbers, the writer 
says : — 

' Much of the preceding matter was inserted (May, 
1833) in the Louisville Herald. A g7'eat change has 
since taken place in public sentiment. Colonization, 
then a favorite measure, is now rejected for instant 
emancipation. Were this last feasible, I would gladly 
join its advocates,' &;c. 

In a letter to the publisher of the Emancipator, 
dated ' April 1, 1837,' from a Southerner, I find the 
following language : — 

' Though a born and bred, I now consider the 

Anti-Slavery cause as a just and holy one. Deep re- 
flection, the reading of your excellent publications, and 
— years of travel in Europe, have made me, what I 
am now proud to call myself, an abolitionist. 

' For the present, accept the assurances of my un- 
swerving devotion to the cause of liberty and justice. 
Any letter from yourself will always give me sincere 
pleasure, and whenever I go to New York, I shall call 
upon you, sans ceremonie, as I would upon an old 
friend.' 

A short time since, J G. Birney received a dona- 
tion of 820 for the Anti- Slavery Society, from an in- 
dividual residing in a slave State, accompanied with 
a request that his name might not be mentioned. 

About the time of the robbery of the U. S. Mail, 

and the burning of Abolition papers by the infatuated 

citizens of my own city, the Editor of the Charleston 

Courier made the following remarks in his paper, 

7 



74 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

which plainly reveal the cowering of the spirit of sla- 
very, under the searching- scrutiny occasioned by the 
Anti-Slavery discussions in the free States. 

' Mart for Negroes. — We understand that a propo- 
sition is before the city council, relative to the estab- 
lishment of a mart for the sale of negroes in this city, 
in a place 7)?ore remote from observation, and less of- 
fensive to the public eye, than the one now used for 
that purpose. We doubt not that the proposition be- 
fore the council will be acceptable to the community, 
and that it may be so matured as to promote public 
decency, without prejudice to the interest of individ- 
uals.' 

Hear, too, the acknowledgement of the Southern 
Literary Eeview, published at Charleston, South Car- 
olina, which was got up in 1837, to sustain the system 
of Slavery. 

' There are maiiy good men even among us, who 
have begun to grow timid. They think that what 
the virtuous and high-minded men of the North look 
upon as a crime and a plague-spot, cannot be perfectly 
innocent or quite harmless in a slaveholding commu- 
nity. ^ ^ =^ Some timid men among us, whose ears 
have been long assailed with outcries of tyranny and 
oppression, wafted over the ocean and land "from North 
to South, begin to look fearfully around them.' 

A correspondent of the Pittsburgh Witness, detailing 
the particulars of an Anti-Slavery meeting in Wash- 
ington CO. Pennsylvania, says :—' After Dr. Lemoyne, 
the President of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, had finished his address, in which the principles 
and measures of the Anti-Slavery Society were fully 
exhibited, the Rev. Charles Stewart, of Kentucky, a 
slaveholding clergyman of the Presbyterian church, 
who was casually present, rose and addressed the au- 
dience, and instead of opposing our principles as might 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 75 

have been expected, fully endorsed every thing that 
had been said, declaring his conviction that such a 
speech would have been well received by the truly re- 
ligious part of the community in which he resided, 
and would have been opposed only by those who were 
actuated by party politics alone, or those who ' neither 
feared God nor regarded man.' 

I give thee now a letter from a gentleman in a 
South Western slaveholding State, to J. G. Birney. 

' Very Dear Sir: — I knew you in the days of your 
prosperity at the South, though you will not recognize 
me. Ever since you first took your stand in defence 
of natural rights, I have been looking upon you with 
intense interest. I ivas violently opposed to Aboli- 
tionists, and verily thought I was doing service to 
both church and State, in decrying them as incendia- 
ries ^n^ fanatics. What blindness and infatuation! 
Yet I was sincere. Ah ! my dear sir, God in mercy 
has taught me that something more than sincerity, in 
the common acceptation of the term, is necessary to 
preserve our understandings from idiocy, and our 
hearts from utter ruin. How could I have been such 
a madman, as coolly and composedly to place my foot 
upon the necks of immortal beings, and from that 
horrid point of elevation, hurl the deep curses of 
church and State at the heads of whom ? Fa- 
natics 1 No, sir ! — hict of the only persons on the 
face of the earth, who had heart enough to feel, and 
SOUL enough to act, in behalf of the RIGHTS OF 
MAN ! Yet I was just snch a madman ! Yes, sir, 
I was a fanatic, and an incendiary too— setting ori 
fire the worst passions of our fallen nature. But I 
have repented. I have become a convert to political, 
and I trust, also, to Christian Freedom. The specta- 
cle exhibited by yourself, and your compatriots and 
fellow-chrislians, has completely overcome me. Your 
reasonings convince my judgment, and your actions 
win my heart. God speed you in your work of love . 



76 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

The hopes of the worlJ depend, under God, upon the 
success ol your cause. 

Very respectfully and with undying affection, 
Your friend and brother, A Southerner.' 

Another of J, G. Birney's southern correspondents 
says, in 1S36, 

' That portion of the Church with which I am con- 
nected, seem to have no sympathy with the indignation 
against the abolitionists, which prevails so extensively 
North and South ; but, on the other hand, consider 
the Sonlh as infatuated to the highest degree. 

There is more credit for philanthropy given those 
who manumit their slaves, without expatriation ^ than 
formerly. 

The thirst for information is increasing, while the 
' noil liquetisirC [voting on neither side] of brethren in 
church courts is becoming less and less satisfactory ; 
and such of them as adv^ocate the perpetuity of the 
system, are looked upon with surprise and regret. 

Those who view with horror the traffic in slaves 
by ministers of the gospel, express more freely their 
pain at its indulgence, than 1 have ever known. I 
am acquainted with several such cases. In no in- 
stances have they left the brother's standing where it 
was, before it took place. Of such cases — even those, 
too, where the usual allowances might be called for — 
I have heard professors of religion remark, ' Mr. A. 
could not get an audience to hear him preach' — ' Mr. 
B. has more assurance than I could have, to preach, 
after selling my slaves as he has done' — ' He can 
never make me believe he has any religion' — ' This 
is the fir.^t time you have done so, but repeat it, and I 
think I shall never hear you preach again.' 

These remarks were made by slaveholding profes- 
sors of religion themselves, and under circumstances 
neither calculated nor intended to deceive. 



i^ 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 77 

The following letter was written by an intelligent 
gentleman in the interior of Alabama, to Arthur Tap- 
pan, of New York, who had sent him some Anti-Sla- 
very publications. The date is March 21, 1S34. 

' Dear Sir — Your letter of Dec. last, I read with 
much interest. The numbers of the Anti-Slavery 
Reporter, also, which you were so kind as to send 
me, I carefully examined, and put them in circulation. 

Your operations have produced considerable excite- 
ment in some sections of this country, but humanity 
has lost nothing. The more the subject of slavery is 
agitated, the better. A distinguished gentleman re- 
marked to me a day or two since, that ' there was a 
great change going on in public sentiment.' Few 
would acknowledge that it was to be ascribed to the 
influence of your Society. There can be no doubt, 
however, that this is directly and indirectly the prin- 
cipal cause.' 

During the same year, the Editor of the New York 
Evangelist received a letter from a christian friend in 
North Carolina, from which I give thee an extract. 

To the Editor of the Evangelist — 

' The subject of slavery, recently brought up and 
discussed in your paper, is the one which elicits the 
following remarks. 

In the first place I will state, that I entertain very 
different views 7iow, to what I did six months ago. I 
was among those who thought (and honestly too) that 
there was no more moral guilt attached to the holding 
our fellow beings in bondage, regarding them as pro- 
perty, than to the holding of a mule or an ox. It was 
natural enough for me to think so, for I had been 
trained from my very infancy to view the subject in 
no other light. I shall never forget my feelings when 
the subject was first hit upon in the Evangelist. I 
became angry, and was disposed to attribute sinister 
7# 



k 



78 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

motives to all who were concerned in the matter. 
With some others, I determined to stop the paper 
fortliwith. 

Though I made every effort to turn my mind away 
from the subject, my conscience in spite of me began 
to awake, and to be troubled. The word of God was 
resorted to, witli the hope of finding something to 
brinof peace and quietude, but all in vain. It was but 
adding fuel to the flame. I determined, let others do 
as they would, to meet the subject, to examine it in all 
its bearings, and to abide the result ; and if it should 
be found that God regards slavery as an evil, and in- 
compatible with the gospel, I would give it up. If 
not, I should be made wiser without incurring any 
harm by the investigation. 

In the very nature of God's dealings with men, this 
subject must and will be agitated, until conviction 
shall be brought home to the heart and conscience of 
every man, and slavery shall be banished from otir 
land. And woe be to him who wilfully closes his 
eyes, and stops his ears against the light of God's 
truth.' 

In Sth month of the same year, the same paper 
contained the following extract from another corres- 
pondent in North Carolina. 

N. C. July 9, 1834. 

'Rev. and dear Sir — If I owe an apology for in- 
truding on you, and introducing myself, I must find it 
in the fact, that I wish to bid you God speed in the 
fifood cause in which you are so heartily engaged. 
Wiiile so many at the North are opposing, I wish to 
cheer you by one voice from the South. If it is un- 
popular to plead the cause of the oppressed negro in 
New York, how dangerous to be known as his friend 
in the far South, where, as a correspondent in the 
Evangelist justly observes, a minister cannot enforce 
the law of love, without being suspected of favoring 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 79 

emancipation. I am glad the people with you are 
beginning to feel and to act. I pray God that you 
may go on with all the light and love of the gospel, 
and that the cry of ' Let us alone,' will not frighten 
you from your labor of love.' 

James A. Thome, a Presbyterian clergyman, a na- 
tive, and still a resident of Kentucky, said in a speech 
at New York, at the Anniversary of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society in 1834 : 

' Under all these disadvantages, you are doing 
much. The very little leaven which you have been. 
enabled to introduce, is now working with tremen- 
dous power. One instance has lately occurred within 
my acquaintance, of an heir to slave property — a 
young man of growing influence, who was first 
awakened by reading a single number of the Anti- 
Slavery Reporter, sent to him by some unknown 
hand. He is now a whole-hearted abolitionist. I 
have facts to show that cases of this kind are by no 
means rare. A family of slaves in Arkansas Terri- 
tory, another in Tennessee, and a third, consisting of 
83, in Virginia, were successively emancipated through 
the influence of one abolition periodical. Then do 
not hesitate as to duty. Do not pause to consider 
the propriety of interference. It is as unquestionably 
the province of the North to labor in this cause, as it 
is the duty of the church to convert the world. The 
call is urgent — it is imperative. We want light. 
The ungodly are saying, ' the church will not en- 
lighten us.' The church is saying, ' the njinistry will 
not enlighten us.' The ministry is crying, 'Peace — 
take care.' We are altogether covered in gross 
darkness. We appeal to you for light. Send us 
faets — send us kind remonstrance and manly rea- 
soning. We are perishing for lack of truth. We 
have been lulled to sleep by the guilty apologist.' 



1 



80 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

A letter from a Post Master in Virginia, to the 
editor of ' Human Rights,' dated August 15, 1835, 
contains the following : — 

' I have received two numbers of Human Rights, 
and one of The Emancipator. I have read and loan- 
ed them, had them returned, and loaned again. I 
can see no unsoundness in the arguments there ad- 
vanced — and until I can see some evil in your publi- 
cations, I shall distribute all you send to this office. 
It is certainly high time this subject was examined, 
and viewed in its proper light. I know these publi- 
cations will displease those who hold their fellow men 
in bondage : but reason, truth and justice are on 
your side — and why should you seek the good will 
of any who do evil ? 

I would be pleased to have a copy of the last Report 
of the Am. Anti-Slavery Society, if convenient, and 
some of your other pamphlets, which you have to dis- 
tribute gratis. I will read and use them to the best 
advantage.' 

A gentleman of Middlesex County, Mass. \vhose 
house is one of my New England homes, told me that 
he had very recently met with a slaveholder from the 
South, who, during a warm discussion on the subject 
of slavery, made the following acknowledgment : ' The 
worst of it is, we have fanatics among ourselves, and 
we don't know what to do with them, for they are in- 
creasing fast, and are sustained in their opposition to 
slavery by the Abolitionists of the North.' 

A Baptist clergyman whom I met in Worcester 
County, Mass., a few months since, told me that his 
brother-in-law, a lawyer of New Orleans, who had 
recently paid him a visit, took up the Report of the 
Massachusetts Ami- Slavery Society, and read it with 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. SI 

great interest. He then inquired, whether the princi- 
ples set forth in that document were Anti-Slavery 
principles. Upon being informed that they were, he 
expressed his entire approbation of them, and full 
conviction that they would prevail as soon as the 
South understood them ; for, said he, they are the prin- 
ciples of truth and justice, and must finally triumph. 
This gentleman requested to be furnished with some 
of our publications, and carried them to the South 
with him. 

There certainly can be no doubt to a reflecting and 
candid mind, as to what will and must be the result 
of Anti-Slavery operations. Hear now the opinion 
of one of the leading political papers in Charleston, 
South Carolina, the Southern Patriot. 

' While agitation is permitted in Congress, there is 
710 securitij for the South. While discussion is aU 
lowed in that body, year after y':::ir, in relation to sla- 
very and its incidents, the rights of property at the 
South must, in the lapse of a short period, be under- 
mined. It is the weapon of all who expect to work 
out great changes in public opiniori. It was the in- 
strument by which O'Connell gradually shook the 
fabric of popular prejudice in England on the Catho- 
lic question. His sole instrument was agitation, both 
in Parliament and out of it. His constant counsel to 
his followers was, agitate ! agitate ! They did agi- 
tate. They happily carried the question of Catholic 
rights. 

Agitation may be successfully employed for a bad 
as w'ell as good cause. What was the weapon of the 
English abolitionists? — Agitation. Eegard the ques- 
tion of the abolition of the slave trade when first 
brought into Parliament — behold the influence of 
PITT and the tory party beating down its advocates 



S2 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

b}' ail overwhelming- majority ! Look at the question 
of abolition itself, twenty years after, and you see 
WiLBERFORCE and his adherents carrying the question 
itself of aholUloii of slavery, by a majority as trium- 
phant ! How was all this accomplished ? — By agita- 
tion in Parliiment ! It was on this ample theatre 
that the abolitionists worked their fatal spells. It 
was on this wide stage of discussion that they spoke 
to the people of Engh\nd in that voice of fanaticism, 
which, at length, found an echo that suited their pur- 
poses. It was through the debates, which circulated 
by means of the press throughout every corner of the 
realm, that they carried thai question to its extreraest 
borders, to the hamlet of every peasant in the empire. 
Can it then be expected, if we give the American 
abolitionists the same advantage of that wide field of 
debate wliich Congress affords, that the same results 
will not follow? The local legislatures are limited 
theatres of action. Their debates are comparatively 
obscure. These are not read by the people at large. 
Allow the agitators a great political centre, like that 
of Washington — permit them to address their voice 
of fiinatical violence to the whole American people, 
through their diffusive press, and they want no greater 
advantage. They have a moral lever by avhich 

THEY CAN MOVE A WORLD OF OPINION. 

The course of the southern States is therefore 
marked out by a pencil of light. They should obtain 
additional guarantees against the discussion of slavery 
i)i Congress, hi any manner, or in any of its forms, 
as it exists in the tfaited States. This is the only 
moans that promises success in removing agitation. 
We have said that this is the accepted time. When 
we look at the spread of opinion on this subject in 
some of the eastern States— in Vermont, Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut — what are we to expect in a 
few years, in the middle States, should discussion 
proceed in Congress ? These States are yet unin- 
fected, in any considerable degree, by the fanatical 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 83 

spirit. They may not remaiyi so after a lajjse of fice 
years. If they are animated by a true spirit of pntri- 
otisiu — by a genuine love for the Union, they should, 
and could with effect, interpose to stay this moral 
pestilence. Their voice in this matter would be in- 
fluential. New York and Pennsylvania are inter- 
mediate between the South and East in position and 
in physical strength.' 

Samuel L. Gould, a minister of the Baptist denom- 
ination, writing to the Secretary of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society, from Fayette County, Penn- 
sylvania, in 4th month, 1S38, says : — 

' The Smithfield Anti-Slavery Society, [on the 
border of Virginia] has among its members, several 
residents of Virginia. Its President has been a slave- 
holder, and until recently, was a distinguished citizen 
of Virginia, the High Sheriff of Rockingham County. 
Having become convinced of the wickedness of slave- 
holding, a little more than a year ago he purchased 
an estate in Pennsylvania, and removed to it, his 
colored men accompanying him. He now employs 
them as hired laborers.' 

^ I may mention, in this connection, an Alabama 
sraveholder, a lawyer named Smith, who emancipated 
his slaves, I think about twenty in number, a few 
months since. He was the brother-in-law of William 
Allan of Hantsville, who was in 1834, president of 
the Lane Seminary Anti-Slavery Society, and subse- 
quently an agent of the American Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, and who had for years previous been in kind 
and faithful correspondence with him on the subject 
of slavery. 

Henry P. Thompson, a stude^it of Lane Seminary, 
and a slaveholder at the time of the Anti- Slavery 



84 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

discussion in that Institution, was convinced by it, 
went to Kentucky, aiul emancipated his slaves. 

Arthur Thome, an elder in the Presbyterian 
Church, Augusta, Kentucky, emancipated his slaves, 
fourteen in number, about two years since. J. G. 
Birney, speaking of him in the Philanthropist, says : — 

* For a long time he had been a professor of reli- 
gion, but had not, till the doctrines of abolition were 
embraced by his son on the discussion of the subject 
at Lane Seminary, given to the subject more attention 
than was usual among slaveholding professors at the 
tin)e. At first he thought his son was deranged — 
and that his intended trip to New York, to speak at 
the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Soci- 
ety, was evidence of it. He sought him (as we have 
heard,) on the steamboat, which was to convey him 
up the Ohio river, that he might stop him from going. 
Something, however, prevented his seeing his son 
before his departure, and there was no detention. 

The truth bore on the mind of Mr. T. till it pro- 
duced its proper fruit — and he now says, that he is 
confident no other doctrine but that of the sin of slave- 
holding, connected with an immediate breaking ofF< 
from it, will influence the slaveholder to do justice.^ 

I see by the late Washington papers, that one of 
my South Carolina cousins, Robert Barnwell Rhett, 
the late Attorney General of the State, has come up 
to my help on this point, with his characteristic chiv- 
alry ; [howbeit * he meaneth not so, neither doth his 
heart think so.'] In his late address to his Congres- 
sional Constituents, he says : — 

' Who that knows anylhinq- of human aff;iirs, but 
must be sensible that the subject of abolition may be 
approached in a thousand ways, without direct leg- 
islation ? By perpetual discussion, agitation and 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 85 

threats, accompanied with the real or imaginary- 
power to perfonn, there loill be need of no other action 
than loords to shake the confidence ef men in the safely 
and continuance of the institution of slavery, and its 
value and existence loill he destroyed. These are all 
the weapons the abolitionist desires to be allowed to 
use to accomplish his purpose. When Congress 
moves, it will be the last act in the drama ; and it wdl 
be prepared to enforce its leg'slation. To acknowl- 
edge the right, or to tolerate the act of interference'at 
alf with this institution, is to give it up— to abandon 
it entirely; and, as this must be the consummation 
of any interference, the sooner it is reached the belter. 
The South must hold this institution, not amidst 
alarm and molestation, but in geace — perfect peace, 
from the interference or agitation of others; or, I re- 
peat it, she idHI — she can — hold it not at alL 
There is no one so weak, but he must perceive that, 
whilst the spirit of abolition in the North is increasing, 
slavery in the South, in all the frontier States, is de- 
creasing.' 

Farther, I may add the names of J. G. Birney of 
Alabama, John Thompson and a person named Meux, 
[assamine County, Kentucky, J. M. Buchanan, Pro- 
fessor in Center College, Kentucky, Andrew Shannon, 
a Presbyterian minister in Shelbyville, Kentucky, 
Samuel Taylor, a Presbyterian minister of Nichoks- 
ville, Kentucky, Peter Dunn of Mercer County, Ken- 
tucky, a person named Doake in Tennessee, another 
named Carr in North Carolina, another named Harn- 
don in Virginia— with a number of others, the partic- 
ulars of wdiose cases I have not now by me, all of 
whom were slaveholders four years since, and were 
induced to emancipate their slaves through the influ- 
ence of Anti-Slavery discussions and periodicals. 
8 






86 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

The Democrat, a political paper published at 
Rochester, New York, contained the following in the 
summer of 1S3-5. 

' On Saturday last, many of our citizens had an 
opportunity of witnessing a noble scene. On board 
the boat William Henry, then lying at the Exchange 
street wharf, were ten slaves, or those who had re- 
cently been such, and several free persons of color. 
lUie master, a gentleman of more than seventy years 
of age, accompanied them. His residence was in 
Powhattan County, seventy miles below Richmond, 
Virginia. He was on his way to Buffalo, near which 
place he intends purchasing a large farm, -where his 
' people,' as he calls them, are to be settled. The 
above named gentleman was led to sacrifice much of 
this world's lucre, besides some SoOOO of human 
^ property y' by becoming convinced of the sinfulnt^ss 
of his practice while reading Anti-Slavery puhlica- 
tions."* 

A letter now lies before me from an elder of a re- 
ligious denomination in the far South- AVest, who 
was converted to Abolition sentiments by Anti-Slavery 
publications sent to him from the city of New Yorj 
and who ha.s already emancipated his slaves, ten in 
number. The writer says, ' my hopes are revived 
when I read of the progress of the cause in the East- 
ern States, and of the increase of Anti-Slavery Socie- 
ties. My soul glows with gratitude to God for his 
mercy to the down-trodden slaves, in raising up for 
them in these days of savage cruelty, hundreds who, 
fearless of consequences, are standing up for the entire 
abolition of slavery, whom, though unseen, I dearly 
love. O I how it would delight me to listen to the 
public addresses of some of these dear friends.' 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 87 

Hear, too, the reason assig'ned by James Smylie, a 
Presbyterian minister of the Amite Presbytery, Mis- 
sissippi, for writing a book in 1836, to prove that sla- 
very is a divine institution. 

' From his intercourse with religious societies of 
all denominations in Mississippi and Louisiana, he 
was aware that the Abolition maxim, viz : that Sla- 
very is in itself sinful, had gamed on and entivined 
itself among the religioiis and conscientious scricples 
of many in the community, so far as to render them 
unhappy. The eye of the mind, resting on Slavery 
itself as a corrupt fountain, from which, of necessity, 
nothing but corrupt streams could flow, was inces- 
santly employed in search of some plan by which, 
with safety, the fountain could, in some future time, 
be entirely dried up.' An illustration of this impor- 
tant acknowledgement, will be found in the following 
fact, extracted from the Herald of Freedom : ' A 
young gentleman who • has been residing in South 
Carolina, says our movements (Abolitionists) are pro- 
ducing the best effects upon the South, rousing the 
consciences of Slaveholders, while the slaves seem to 
/y b e impressed as a body with the idea, that help is 
JB||pming — that an interest is feh for them, and plans 
^^fevising for their relief somewhere — which keeps 
them quiet. He says it is not uncommon for minis- 
ters and good people to make confession like this. 
One, riding with him, broke forth, ' O, I fear that the 
groans and wails from our slaves enter into the ear 
of the Lord of Sabaoth. I am distressed on this sub- 
ject : my conscieiice v/ill let me have no peace. I go 
to bed, but not to sleep. I walk my room in agony, 
and resolve that I will never hold slaves another day ; 
but in the morning, my heart, like Pharaoh's, is 
hardened.' 
* In the autumn of 1835, an infmential minister in 

one of the most southern States, (who only one year 



83 EFEECT ON THE SOUTH. 

before had stoutly defended slavery, and vehemently 
insisted that northern abolitionists "were producing 
unmixed and irremediable evil at the South,) wrote to 
the Corresponding Secretary of one of our State Anti- 
Slavery Societies who had furnished him with Ami- 
Slavery publications, avowing his conversion to Abo- 
lition sentiments, and praying that Anti-Slavery So- 
cieties might persevere in their efforts, and increase 
them. Among other expressions of strong feeling 
the letter contained the following : 

' I am greatly surprised that I should in any form 
have been the apologist of a system so full of deadly 
poison to all holiness and benevolence as slaver}'-, the 
concocted essence of fraud, selfishness, and cold- 
hearted tyranny, and the fruitful parent of unnum- 
bered evils, both to the oppressor and the oppressed, 

THE ONE THOUSANDTH TART OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN 
BROUGHT TO LIGHT. 

' Do you ask why this change, after residing in a' 
slave country for twenty years? You remember the 
lines of Pope, beginning : 



1 



' Vice is a monster, of so frightful mien 

As to be hated, needs but to be seen, 

But seen too oft, familiar with her face ; y 

We first endure, tlien pity, then embrace.^ 

I had become so familiar with the loathsome fea- 
tures of slavery, that they ceased to offend — besides, 
I had become a southern man in all my feelings, and 
it is a part of our creed to defend slavery.' 

About two years since, Arthur and Lewis Tappan 
received a letter from a Virginian slaveholder, who 
held nearly one hundred slaves, and whose conscience 
had been greatly roused to the sin of slavery. In the 
letter, he avowed his determination to absolve himself 



1 



4t 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. SO 

from the guilt of slaveholding, declaring that he ' had 
rather be a wood cutter or a coal heaver, than to re- 
main in the midst of slavery.^ 

An intelligent gentleman, a lawyer and a citizen 
of ihe District of Columbia, has jnst written a letter 
to a gentleman of New York city, from which I give 
thee the following extract : 

' The proceedings in Congress at this session have 
had the effect, I think, to rouse the attention of the 
public in all quarters, to the subject of slavery; and 
that, of itself, I think is a good : and it is in my 
opinion the chief present good that is to grow out of 
it. Discussion of some sort takes place, and the real 
foundation on which the system rests, cannot but be 
brought more or less into view. My hope is, that 
men who denounce now, will at length reason. That 
is what is wanted — reasoning, reflection, and a true 
perception of the basis on which slavery is founded.' 

The foregoing are but a few of the facts and testi- 
monies ^n the possession of Abolitionists, showing 
at their discussions, periodicals, petitions, arguments, 
peals and societies, have extensively moved, and 
arestiltmightily moving the slaveholding States — for 
good. Did time and space permit, I might, by a little 
painstaking, procure many more. Before passing 
from this part of the subject, I must record my 
amazement at the clamors of many of the opponents 
of Abolitionists, from whom better things might indeed 
be hoped. What slaveholders have you convinced ? 
they demand. Whom have you made Abolitionists? 
Give us their names and places of abode. Now, those 
who incessantly stun us with such unreasonable 
clamor, know full well, that to give the public the 



k. 



90 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

names and residences of such persons, would be in 
most instances to surrender them to butchery. But 
be it known to the North and to the South, we have 
names of scores of citizens of the slavehokling states, 
many of them slaveholders, who are in constant cor- 
respondence with us, persons who feel so deeply on 
the subject as to implore us to persevere in our ef- 
forts, and not to be dismayed by Southern threats nor 
disheartend by Northern cavils and heartlessness. Yea 
more, these persons have committed to us the custo- 
dy even of their lives, thus encountering imminent per- 
il that they might cheer us onward in our work. 
Shall we betray their trust, or put them in jeopardy ? 
Judge thou. 

Now let me ask, when in former years Anti-Slave- 
ry tracts, with our doctrines, could be circulated at 
the South ? The fact is, there were none to be cir- 
culated there ; our principle of repentance is quite 
new. But I can tell thee of two facts, which it is 
probable thou 'hast not been informed of.' In th^^ 
year 1S09, the steward of a vessel, a colored marj^ 
carried some Abolition pamphlets to Charleston. 
Immediately on his arrival, he w^as informed against, 
and would have been tried for his life, had he not 
promised to leave the State, never to return. Was 
South Carolina willing to receive abolition pamphlets 
then .? Again, in 1820, my sister carried some pam- i 
phlets there — ' Thoughts on Slavery,' issued by the 
Society of Friends, and therefore not very incendia- 
ry, thou mayest be assured ; and yet she was inform- 
ed some .time afterwards, that had it not been for the i 
influence of our family, she would have been impris- 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 91 

oned ; for she, too, was accused of giving one of 
them to a slave ; just as Abolitionists have been 
falsely charged with sending their papers to the en- 
slaved. What she did give away, she was ohUged 
to give privately. Was Charleston ready to receive 
Abolition pamphlets then? Or when ? please to tell 
me. I say that more, far more Anti-Slavery tracts, 
&c. are now read in the South, than ever were at 
any former period. As to Colonizotion tracts, I 
know they have circulated at the South ; but what 
of that, when Southernei-s believed that Colonization 
had no connection with the overthrow of Slavery ? 
Colonization papers, &c. are not Abolition papers. 

As to preachers, let me assure thee, that they 7iev- 
er have dared to preach on the subject of slavery in 
my native cit}', so far as my knowledge extends. 
Ah ! I for some years sat under two northern minis- 
ters, but never did I hear them preach in public, or 
speak in private, on the sin of slavery. O ! the deej)^ 
DEEP injury which such unfaithful ministers have in- 
picted on the South I It is well known that our 
young men have, to a great extent, been educated in 
Northern Theological Seminaries. With what prin- 
ciples w'ere their minds imbued ? What kind of 
religion did the North prepare them to preach 1 A 
slaveholdinsf religion. What kind of religion did 
northern men come down and preach to us ? A 
slaveholding religion— and multitudes of them be- 
came slaveholders. Such was one of my northern 
pastors. And yet thou tellest m.e, the North has 
nothing to do with slavery at the South — is not guil- 
ty, &c. &c. ' Their own clergy,' thou sayest, ' eith- 



9i2 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 

er entirely hold their peace, or become tlie defend- 
ers of a system they once lamented, and attempted 
to bring to an end.' Do name to me one of those 
valiant defenders of slavery, who formerly lamented 
over the system, and attempted to bring it to an end. 
' What is his name, or what is his son's name, if 
ihou canst tell V Strange indeed, if, because we ad- 
vocate the truth, others should begin to hate it ; or 
because we expose sin, they should turn round and 
defend what once they lamented over ! Is this in 
accordance with ' the known laws of -mind,' where 
principle is deeply rooted in the heart? 

And then thou closest these assertions luithout 
proof, wnth the triumphant exclamation, ' This is 
the record of experience, as to the tendencies of abo- 
litionism, as thus far developed. The South is just 
now in that state of high exasperation, at the sense 
of wanton injury and impertinent interference, which 
makes the influence of truth and reason most useless 
and powerless.' Hadst thou been better informed as 
to the real tendencies of abolitionism on the South,(P^ 
this assertion also might have been spared. Ao-ain 
I repeat, the South does not tell us so. Read the 
subjoined extract of a letter now lying before me 
from a correspondent in a Sonthern State. ' 12 or 15 
at this place believe that all men are born free and 
equal, \.\\^\. prejudice against color is a disgrace to the 
mail who feels it, that such a feeling is without foun- 
dation in reason or scripture, and ought to be aban- 
doned immediately, that slavery is a malum in se, yea, 
a heinous cri??}c in the sight of God, to be repented 
oiicithout delay: Read also the following, extract- 



EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 93 

ed from the Marietta Gazette : * A citizen of one of 
the free states, not many months ago, observed to 
a distinguished southerner, that the operations of the 
abolitionists were impeding the cause of emancipa- 
tion — or to that effect. ' Sir,' said the Southerner, 
'You are mistaken. Depend upon it, these agita- 
tions have put the slaveholders to very serious think- 
ing.' These, then, are the effects which Abolitionism is 
producing on some at the South. That others are 
exasperated, I do not deny. Hear what Boiling of 
AHrginia said in 1832, in the Legislature of that 
State : ' It has long been the pleasure of those 
who are wedded to the system of slavery, to brand 
all its opponents with opprobrious epithets ; to rep- 
resent them as enemies to order, as persons desir- 
ous of tearing up the foundation of society there- 
by endeavoring to brand them with infamy in 
order to avert from them the public ear.' Here then 
we find a Southern Legislator acknowledging that 
all the opponents of Slavery have ever excited the 

ame exasperation in those who are ' wedded to the 
system.' AVho is to be blamed ? Is this any cause 
of discouragement? That we have succeeded in 
rousing the North to reflection, thou art thyself a liv- 
ing proof; for let me ask, what it was that set thee to 
such serious thinking, as to induce thee to write a 

hook on the Slave Question? 

Thy friend in haste, 

A. E. GPvIMKE. 



LETTER X. 

'the tendency of the age towards emancipation' 
produced by abolition doctrines. 

Dear Friend: Thou sayest, ' that this evil (Slav- 
ery,) is at no distant period to come to an end, is the 
unanimous opinion of all who either notice the ten- 
dencies of the age, or believe in the prophecies of the 
Bible.' But how can this be true, if Abolitionists 
have indeed rolled back the car of Emancipation ? If 
onr measures really tend to this result, how can this 
evil come to an end at no distant period? Coloniza-'^^ 
tionists tell us, if it had not been for our interference, 
they could have done a vast deal better than they have 
done ; and the American Unionists say, that we have 
paralyzed their efforts, so that they can do nothing; 
and yet ' the tendencies of the age ' are crowding for- 
ward Emancipation. Now, what has produced this 
tendency ? Surely every reflecting person must ac- 
knowledge, that Colonization cannot effect the work 
of Abolition. The American Union is doing nothing ; 
and Abolitionists are pursuing a course which ' will 
tend to bring slavery to an end, if at all, at the 7nost 



TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 95 

distant period,' — then do tell me, how the tendencies 
of the age can possibly lean towards Emancipation ! 
Perhaps I shall be told, that the movements of Great 
Britain in the West Indies created this tendency. 
Ah ! bat this is 7\. foreign influence, more so even than 
Northern influence ; and if the North is ' a foreign 
community,' as thou expressly stylest it, and can on 
that account produce no influence on the South, how 
can the doings of England aflect her ? 

Now I believe with thee, that the tendencies of the 
age are toward Emancipation ; but I contend that no- 
thing but free discussion has produced this tendency — 
' the present agitation of the subject' is in fact the 
thing which is producing this happy tendency. Now 
let us turn to the South, and ask her eagle-eyed poli- 
ticians what they are most afraid of. Read their an- 
swer in their desperate struggles to fetter the press 
and gag the mouihs of — ichom ? — Colonizationists ? 
Why no — they talk colonization themselves, and are 
not at all afraid that the expatriation of a few hun- 
dreds or thousands in 20 years will ever drain the 
country of its millions of slaves, where they are now 
increasing at the rate of 70,000 every year. The 
American Unionists ? O no ! the South has not 
deemed them worthy of any notice ! Pray, then, 
lohose mouths are slaveholders so fiercely striving to 
seal in silence ? Why' the mouths of Abolitionists, to 
be sure — even our infant school children know this. 
Strange indeed, when the labors of these men are ac- 
tually rolling back the car of Emancipation for one or 
two centuries ! Why, the South ought to pour out 
her treasure, to support Anti- Slavery agents, and print 



96 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION 

Anti-Slavery papers and pamphlets, and do all she 
can to aid us in rolling hack Emancipation. Pray, 
write her a look., and tell her she has been very need- 
lessly alarmed at onr doings, and advise her to send 
us a. few thousand dollars : her money would be very 
acceptable in these hard times, and we would take 
il as the wages due to the unpaid laborers, though we 
would never admit the donors to membership with us. 
How dost thou think she would receive such a look ? 
Just try it, I entreat thee. 

Thou seemest to think that the North has no right 
to rebuke the South, and assumest the ground that 
Abolitionists are the enemies of the South. We say, 
we have the right, and mean to exercise it. I believe 
that every northern Legislature has aright, and ought 
to use the right, to send a solemn remonstrance to 
every southern Legislature on the subject of slavery. 
Just as much right as the South has to send up a re- 
monstrance against our free presses, free pens, and 
free tongues. Let the North follow her example ; but, 
instead of asking her to enslave her subjects, entreat 
her to free them. The South may pretend 7i02v, that 
we have no right to interfere, because it suits her con- 
venience to say so ; but a few j-ears ago, (1S20,) we 
find that our Vice President, R. M. Johnson, in his 
speech on the Missouri question, was amazed at the 
*cold insensibility, the eternal apathy towards the 
slaves in tlie District of Columbia,' which was exhib- 
ited by northern men, ' though they had occular dem- 
onstration continually ' before them of the abomina- 
tions of slavery. T?Len the South wondered loe did 
not interfere with slavery— and now she says we have 
no right to interfere. 



TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 97 

I find, on the 57th p. a false assertion with regard 
to Abolitionists. After showing the folly of our re- 
jecting the worldly doctrine of expediency, so excel- 
lent in thy view, thou then sayest that we say, the 
reason why we do not go to the South is, that we 
should be murdered. Now, if there are any half- 
hearted Abolitionists, who are thus recreant to the 
high and holy principle of ' Duty is ours, and events 
are God's,' then I must leave such to explain their 
own inconsistences ; but that this is the reason assign- 
ed by the Society, as a body, I never have seen nor 
believed. So far from it, that I have invariably heard 
those who understood the principles of the Anti-Slav- 
ery Society best, denij that it was a duty to go to the 
South, Qiot because they would be killed, but because 
the North was guilty, and therefore ought to be labor- 
ed \Y\i\iJirst. They took exactly the same view of 
the subject, v/hich was taken by the southern friend 
of mine to whom I have already alluded. ' Until 
til northern women, (said she,) do their duty on the 
subject of slavery, southern women cannot be expect- 
ed to do theirs.' I therefore utterly deny this charge.. 
Such may be the opinion of a few, but it is not and 
cannot be proved to be a principle of action in the 
Anti-Slavery Society. The fact is, we need no ex- 
cuse for not going to the South, so long as the North 
is as deeply involved in the guilt of slavery as she is, 
and as blind to her duty. 

One word with regard to these remarks : ' Before 

the Abolition movements commenced, both northern 

and southern men expressed their views freely at the 

South.' This, also, I deny, because, as a southerner, 

9 



98 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 

I liiiow that I never could express my views freely on 
the abominations of slavery, without exciting anger, 
even in professors of religion. It is true, ' the dan- 
gers^ evils and mischiefs of slavery ' could be, and were 
discussed at the South and the North. Yes, we 
might talk as much as we pleased about these, as long 
as we viewed slavery as a misfortune to the slave- 
holder, and talked of ' the dangers, evils and mischiefs 
of slavery ' to him, and pitied him for having had 
such a 'sad inheritance entailed upon him.' But 
could any man or Avoman ever ' express their views 
freely ' on the sin of slavery at the South ? I say, 
never ! Could they express their views freely as to 
the dangers, mischiefs and evils of slavery to the ^oor 
suffering slave ? No, never ! It was only whilst the 
slaveholder was regarded as an iinfortunate sufferer^ 
and sjnnpathized with as such, that he was willing to 
talk, and be talked to, on this ' delicate subject.' 
Hence we find, that as soon as he is addressed as a 
guilty oppressor, why then he is in a phrenzy of pas- 
sion. As soon as wc set before him the dangers, and 
.evils, and mischiefs of slavery to the down-trodden 
victims of his oppression, O then ! the slaveholder 
storms and raves like a maniac. Now look at this 
view of the subject: as a southerner, I know it is the 
only correct one. 

With regard to the discussion of ' the subject of 
slavery, in the legislative halls of the South,' if thou 
hast read these debates, thou certainly must know 
that they did not touch on the sin of slavery at all ; 
they were wholly confined to ' the dangers, evils and 
mischiefs of slavery ' to the ^infortunate slaveholder. 



TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 99 

What did the discussion in the Virginia legislature 
result in ? In the rejection of every plan of emanci- 
pation, and in the passage of an act which they believ- 
ed would give additional permanency to the institu- 
tion, whilst it divested it of its dangers, by removing 
the free people of color to Liberia ; for which purpose 
they voted 820,000, but took very good care to pro- 
vide, ' that no slave to be thereafter emancipated should 
have the benefit of the appropriation,' so fearful were 
they, lest masters might avail themselves of this 
scheme of expatriation to manumit their slaves. The 
Maryland scheme is altogether based on the principle 
of banishment and oppression. The colored people 
were to be ' got rid of,' for the benefit of their lordly 
oppressors — not set free from the noble principles of 
justice and mercy to them. If Abolitionists have put 
a stop to all such discussions of slavery, I, for one, do 
most heartily rejoice at it. Th- fact is, the South is 
enraged, because we have exposed her horrible hy- 
pocrisy to the world. We have torn off the mask, 
and brought to light the hidden things of darkness. 

To prove to thee that the South, as a body, never 
was prepared for emancipation, I might detail histori- 
cal facts, which are stubborn things ; but I have not 
the time to go into this subject that would be necessary. 
I will, therefore, give a few extracts from documents 
published by the old Abolition Societies, whose prin- 
ciple w^as gradualism. In 1S03, in the report of the 
Delaware Society, I find the following statement :— 
' The general temper and opinion of the opulent m 
this state, is either opposed to the generous principles 
of emancipation to the people of color, or indifferent 



100 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 

to the success of the work.' In 1804, when a Com- 
mittee was appointed to draft a memorial to the Le- 
gislature of North Carolina, we find the following 
sentiment expressed in their Report : — ' They believe 
that public opinion in that state is exceedingly hostile 
to the abolition of slavery ; and every attempt towards 
emancipation is regarded with an indignant and jeal- 
ous eye ; that at present, the inhabitants of that State 
consider the preservation of their lives, and all they 
hold dear on earth, as depending on the continuance 
of slavery, and arc even riveting more firmly the fet- 
ters of oppression.' ' They believe that great difficul- 
ty would attend the preseiitation of an address to the 
public, and that, if presented, it would not be read.' 
The address was, however, issued, and in it w^e find 
this complaint — ' Many aspersioTis hsive been cast upon 
the advocates of the freedom of the blacks, by mali- 
cious and interested men.' In 1805, in the Report of 
the Alexandria Society, District of Columbia, they 
say — ' There is rather a disposition to inc7'ease the 
measure of affliction already appointed to the poor de- 
serted African :' and complain of the decline of the 
Society, for which they assign several reasons, one of 
which is, ' the admission of slaveholders into fellow- 
ship at its formation.' Several of the Reports state, 
that they fully learned the impolicy of this measure, 
by the violent opposition which these slaveholding 
members made to their efforts for emancipation. Just 
as well might a Temperance Society admit a practi- 
cal drunkard into their ranks, as for an Abolition So- 
ciety to admit a slaveholder to membership. 



TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 101 

In 1806, the Report of the Pennsylvania Society 
says — 'We believe the. true reason, why ostensible 
and public measures are not pursued by the advocates 
of abolition in the southern states, will be found in the 
pretty general impression, that it would not, under ex- 
isting circumstances, and in the present temper of the 
public mind, be expedient and useful/ The Wil- 
mington Report * laments that the people of South 
Carolina continue opposed to our cause ' — and in 1S09, 
the Report of this same Society says, ' We regret most 
sincerely the difficulty we labor under in establishing 
corresponding agents in the southern states, on whose 
fidelity and integrity we can firmly rely.' In 1816, 
the Delaware Society makes the following confes- 
sion — • When we look back at the bright prospects 
which opened on this cause within the last 20 years, 
and recur to the joyful feelings excited by the just 
anticipations of speedy success in this conflict with 
cruelty and wrong, we cannot but feel the pressure of 
that gloom which is the consequence of disappoi^it- 
ment and defeat' In 1826, we find the North Caro- 
lina Report acknowledging that ' the gentlest attempt 
to agitate the subject, or the slightest hint at the work 
of emancipation, is sufficient to call forth their indig- 
nant resentment, as if their dearest rights were in- 
vaded.' 

How, then, can our opponents say, that the cause 
of emancipation has been rolled hack by us ? We 
ask, when was it eYQX forward 1 As a southerner, I 
repeat my solemn conviction, hom my own experience, 
and from all I can learn from historical facts, and the 

reports of the Gradual Emancipation Societies of this 
9# 



102 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 

country, and the scope of the debates which took place 
in the Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland Legislatures, 
that it never ivas forward. If the tendencies of the 
age are towards emancipation, they are tendencies 
peculiar to this age in the United States, and have 
been brought about by free discussion, and in accord- 
ance, too, with the knoivn laivs of mind ; for collision 
of mind as naturally produces Hght, as the striking of 
the flint and the steel produces fire. Free discussion 
is this collision, and the results are visible in the light 
which is breaking forth in every city, town and vil- 
lage, and spreading over the hills and valleys, through 
the whole length and breadth of our land. Yes ! it 
has already reached ' the dark valley of the shadow 
of death ' in the South ; and in a few brief years, He 
who said, ' Let there be light,' will gather this moral 
effulgence into a focal point, and beneath its burning 
rays, the heart of the slaveholder, and the chains of 
the slave, will melt like wax before the orb of day. 

Let us, then, take heed lest we be found fighting 
against God while standing idle in the market place, 
or endeavoring to keep other laborers out of the field 
now already white to the harvest. 

Thy Friend, 

A. E. GRIMKE. 



LETTER XL 

THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN AS MORAL BEINGS 
THE SAME. 

Broo KLINE, Mass. Sth month, 2Sth, 1837. 

Dear Friend : I come now to that part of thy 
book, which is, of all others, the most important to the 
women of this country; thy 'general views in rela- 
tion to the place woman is appointed to fill by the 
dispensations of heaven.' I shall quote paragraphs 
from thy book, offer my objections to them, and then 
throw before thee my own views. 

Thou sayest, ' Heaven has appointed to one sex 
the superior, and to the other the subordinate station, 
and this without any reference to the character or con- 
duct of either.' This is an assertion without proof. 
Thou further sayest, that ' it was designed that the 
mode of gaining influence and exercising power 
should be altogether dijferent and peculiar.^ Does 
the Bible teach this.? 'Peace on earth, and good 
will to men, is the character of all the rights and 
privileges, the influence and the power of icoman.'' 
Indeed ! Did our Holy Redeemer preach the doc- 



104 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN 

trines of ;jrace to our sex only ? ' A man may act on 
Society by the collision of intellect, in public debate ; 
he may urge his measures by a sense of shame, by 
fear and by personal interest ; he may coerce by the 
combination of public sentiment ; he may drive by 
physical force, and he does not overstep the bounda- 
ries of his sphere.' Did Jesus, then, give a different 
rule of action to men and women ? Did he tell his 
disciples, when he sent them out to preach the gos- 
pel, that man might appeal to the fear, and shame, 
and interest of those he addressed, and coerce by pub- 
lic sentiment, and drive by physical force ? ' But 
(that) all the power and all the conquests that are 
lawful to woman are those only which appeal to the 
kindly, generous, peaceful and benevolent principles ? ' 
If so, I should come to a very different conclusion 
from the one at which thou hast arrived : I should 
suppose that icoman was the superior, and inan the 
sitbordinate being, inasmuch as moral power is im- 
measurably superior to 'physical force.' 

' Woman is to win every thing by peace and love ; 
by making herself so much respected, &:c. that to 
yield to her opinions, and to gratify her wishes, will 
be the free-will offering of the heart.' This principle 
may do as the rule of action to the fashionable belle, 
whose idol is herself ; whose every attitude and 
smile are designed to win the admiration of others to 
herself ; and who enjoys, with exquisite delight, the 
double-refined incense of flattery which is offered to 
her vanity, by yielding to her opinions, and gratifying 
her wishes, because they are hers. But to the hum- 
ble Christian, who feels that it is truth which she 



AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 105 

seeks to recommend to others, truth which she wants 
them to esteem and love, and not herself, this subtle 
principle must be rejected with holy indignation. 
Suppose she could win thousands to her opinions, 
and govern them by her wishes, how much nearer 
would they be to Jesus Christ, if she presents no 
higher motive, and points to no higher leader? 

' But this is all to be accomplished in the domestic 
circle.' Indeed! 'Who made thee a ruler and a 
judge over all? ' I read in the Bible, that Miriam, 
and Deborah, and Huldah, were called to fill 'public 
stations in Church and State. I find Anna, the 
prophetess, speaking in the temple ' unto all them 
that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.' During 
his ministry on earth, I see women following him 
from town to town, in the most public manner ; I 
hear the woman of Samaria, on her return to the 
city, telling the men to come and see a man who had 
told her all things that ever she did. I see them 
even standing on Mount Calvary, around his cross, 
in the most exposed situation ; but He never rebuked 
them ; He never told them it was unbecoming their 
sphere in life to mingle in the crovvds which followed 
his footsteps. Then, again, I see the cloven tongues 
of fire resting on each of the heads of the one hun- 
dred and twenty disciples, some of whom were 
women ; yea, I hear the??i preaching on the day ol 
Pentecost to the multitudes who witnessed the out- 
pouring of the spirit on that glorious occasion ; for, 
unless ivomen as well as men received the Holy 
Ghost, and prophesied, w^hat did Peter mean by tell- 
ing them, ' This is that which was spoken by the 



1 



106 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN 

prophet Joel : And it shall come to pass in the last 
days, said God, I will pour out my spirit upon all 
' flesh : and your sons and your daughters shall proph- 
esy. . . . And on my servants and on my handmaid- 
ens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit ; and 
they shall prophesy: This is the plain matter of fact, 
as Clark and Scott, Stratton and Locke, all allow. 
Mine is no ' private interpretation,' no mere sectarian 
view. 

I find, too, that Philip had four daughters which 
dildi prophesy ; and what is still more convincing, I 
read in the xi. of I. Corinthians, some particular di- 
rections from the Apostle Paul, as to hoio women 
were to pray and prophesy in the assemblies of the 
people — not in the domestic circle. On examination, 
too, it appears that the very same word, Diakonos, 
which, when applied to Phoebe, Romans xvi. 1, is 
translated servant, when applied to Tychicus, Ephe- 
sians vi. 21, is rendered minister. Ecclesiastical 
History informs us, that this same Phccbe was pre- 
eminently useful, as a minister in the Church, and 
that female ministers suffered martyrdom in the first 
ages of Christianity. And what, I ask, does the 
Apostle mean when he says in Phillipians iv. 3. — 
* Help those women who labored with me in the gos- 
pel ' ? Did these holy women of old perform all 
their gospel labors in ' the domestic and social circle '? 
I trow not. 

Thou sayest, ' the moment woman begins to feel 
the promptings of ambition, or the thirst for poAver, 
her segis of defence is gone.' Can man, then, retain, 
his EBgis when he indulges these guilty passions ? Is 
it woman only who suffers this loss ? 



AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 107 

' All the generous promptings of chivalry, all the 
poetry of romantic gallantry, depend upon woman's 
retaining her place as dependent and defenceless, and 
making no claims, and maintaining no rights, but 
what are the gifts of honor, rectitude and love.' 

I cannot refrain from pronouncing this sentiment 
as beneath the dignity of any woman who names the 
name of Christ. No woman, who understands . her 
dignity as a moral, intellectual, and accountable be- 
ing, cares aught for any attention or any protection, 
vouchsafed by ' the promptings of chivalry, and the 
poetry of romantic gallantry'? Such a one loathes 
such littleness, and turns with disgust from all such 
silly insipidities. Her noble nature is insulted by 
such paltry, sickening adulation, and she will not 
stoop to drink the foul waters of so turbid a stream. 
If all this sinful foolery is to be withdrawn from our 
sex, with all my heart I say, the sooner the better. 
Yea, I say more, no woman who lives up to the true 
glory of her womanhood, will ever be treated with 
such practical contempt. Every man, when in the 
presence of true moral greatness, * will find an influ- 
ence thrown around him,' which will utterly forbid 
the exercise of ' the poetry of romantic gallantry.' 

What dost thou mean by woman's retaining her 
place as defenceless and dependent ? Did our Heav- 
enly Father furnish man with any offensive or de- 
fensive weapons ? Was he created any less defence- 
less than she was ? Are they not equally defence- 
less, equally dependent on Him ? What did Jesus 
say to his disciples, when he commissioned them to 
preach, the gospel ?— ' Behold, I send you forth as 



lOS THE SPHERE OF WOIMAN AND MAN 

SHEEP in the midst of wolves ; be ye wise as ser- 
pents, and harmless as doves. What more could he 
have said to women ? 

Ao-ain, she must ' make no claims, and maintain no 
rights, but what are the gifts of honor, rectitude and 
love.' From whom does woman receive her rights ? 
From God, or from man ? What dost thou mean by- 
saying, her rights are the gifts of honor, rectitude 
and love? One would really suppose that man, as 
her lord and master, was the gracious giver of her 
rights, and that these rights were bestowed upon her 
by ' the promptings of chivalry, and. the poetry of ro- 
mantic gallantry,' — out of the abundance of his hon- 
or, rectitude and love. Now, if I understand the real 
state of the case, woman's rights are not the gifts of 
man — no! nor the gifts of God. His gifts to her 
may be recalled at his good pleasure — but her rights 
are an integTal part of her moral being ; they cannot 
be withdrawn ; they must live with her forever. Her 
rights lie at the foundation of all her duties ; and, so 
long as the divine commands are binding upon her, 
so long must her rights continue. 

' A woman may seek the aid of co-operation and 
combination among her own sex, to assist her in her 
appropriate offices of piety, charity,' &c. Appropriate 
offices ! Ah ! here is the great difHculty. What are 
they? Who can point them out? Who has ever 
attempted to draw a line of separation between the 
duties of men and women, as moral beings, without 
committing the grossest inconsistencies on the one 
hand, or running into the most arrant absurdities or 
the other ? 



AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 109 

' Whatever, in an}' measure, throws a woman into 
the attitude of a combatant, either for herself or oth- 
ers — whatever binds her in a party conflict — whatever 
obliges her in any way to exert coercive influences, 
throws her out of her appropriate sphere.' If, by a 
combatant, thou meanest one who ' drives by phijsi' 
cal force,^ then I say, vian has no more right to ap- 
pear as siLch a combatant than womaia ; for all the 
pacific precepts of the gospel were given to him, as 
well as to her. If, by a partij conjlict, thou meanest 
a struggle for power, either civil or ecclesisastical, 
a thirst for the praise and the honor of man, why, 
then I would ask, is this the proper sphere of any 
moral, accountable being, man or woman ? If, by 
coercive influences, thou meanest the use of force or 
of fear, such as slaveholders and warriors employ, 
then, I repeat, that man has no more right to exert 
these than ivoman. All such influences are repudiat- 
ed by the precepts and examples of Christ, and his 
apostles ; so that, after all, this appropriate sphere of 
woman is just as appropriate to man. These ' gen- 
eral principles are correct,' if thou wilt only permit 
them to be of general application. 

Thou sayest that the propriety of woman's coming 
forward as a suppliant for a portion of her sex who 
are bound in cruel bondage, depends entirely on its 
probable results. I thought the disciples of Jesus 
were to walk by faith, not by sight. Did Abraham 
reason as to the probable results of his ofl'ering up 
Isaac 1 No ! or he could not have raised his hand 
against the life of his son ; because in Isaac, he had 
been told, his seed should be called,— that seed in 
10 



110 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN 

whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. 
O ! when shall we learn that God is wiser than man 
— that his ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts 
than our thoughts — and that ' obedience is better than 
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams ? ' If 
we are always to reason on the probable results of 
performing our duty, I wonder what our Master meant 
by telling his disciples, that they must become like 
little children. I used to think he designed to incul- 
cate the necessity of walking by faiih, in childlike 
simplicity, docility and humility. But if we are to 
reason as to the probable results of obeying the in- 
junctions to plead for the widow and the fatherless, 
and to deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the op- 
pressor, &c., then I do not know what he meant to 
teach. 

According to what thou sayest, the women of this 
country are not to be governed by principles of duty, 
but by the effect their petitions produce on ihe mem- 
bers of Congress, and by the opinions of these men. 
If they deem them ' obtrusive, indecorous, and un- 
wise,' they must not be sent. If thou canst consent 
to exchange the precepts of the Bible for the opin- 
ions of such a body of men as now sit on the desti- 
nies of this nation, I cannot. What is this but 
obeying man rather than God, and seeking the praise 
of man rather than of God ? As to our petitions in- 
creasing the evils of slavery, this is merely an opin- 
ion, the correctness or incorrectness of which remains 
to be proved. When I hear Senator Preston of 
South Carolina, saying, that ' he regarded the con- 
certed movement upon the District of Columbia as 



AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. Ill 

an attempt to storm the gates of the citadel — as 
throwing the bridge over the moat' — and declaring 
that ' the South must resist the dange?- in its incep- 
tion, or it would soon become irresistible ' — I feel con- 
fident that petitions will effect the work of emancipa- 
tion, thy opinion to the contrarjr notwithstanding. 
And when I hear Francis W. Pickens, from the 
same State, saying in a speech delivered in Congress 
— ' Mr. Speaker, we cannot mistake all these things. 
The truth is, the moral power of the world is against 
ns. It is idle to disguise it. We must, sooner or 
later, meet the great issue that is to be made on this 
subject. Deeply connected with this, is the move- 
ment to be made on the District of Columbia. If the 
power be asserted in Congress to interfere here, or 
any approach be made toward that end, it will give a 
shock to our institutions and the country, the conse- 
quences of which no man can foretell. Sir, as well 
might you grapple with iron grasp into the very 
heart and vitals of South Carolina, as to touch this 
subject here.' When I hear these things from the 
lips of keen-eyed politicians of the South, northern 
apologies for not interfering with the subject of slave- 
ry, ' Test it should increase, rather than diminish the 
evils it is wished to remove ' affect me little. 

Another objection to woman's petitions is, that they 
may ' tend to bring females, as petitioners and parti- 
sans, into every political measure that may tend to 
injure and oppress their sex.' As to their ever te- 
coming partisans, i. e. sacrificing principles to power 
or inte'rest, I reprobate this under all circumstances, 
and in both sexes. But I trust my sisters may al 
10* 



112 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN 

ways be permitted to petition for a redress of griev- 
ances. Why not ? The right of petition is the only 
political right that women have : why not let them 
exercise it whenever they are aggrieved ? Our fath- 
ers waged a bloody conflict with England, because 
they were taxed without being represented. This is 
just what unmarried women of property now are. 
They were not willing to be governed by laws which 
they had no voice in making ; but this is the way in 
which women are governed in this Republic. If, 
then, we are taxed without being represented, and 
governed by laws we have no voice in framing, then, 
surely, w-e ought to be permitted at least to remon- 
strate against ' every political measure that may tend 
to injure and oppress our sex in various parts of the 
nation, and under the various public measures that 
may hereafter be enforced.' Why not? Art thou 
afraid to trust the women of this country with dis- 
cretionary power as to petitioning ? Is there not 
sound principle and common sense enough among 
them, to regulate the exercise of this right ? I believe 
they will always use it wisely. I am not afraid to 
trust my sisters — not I. 

Thou sayest, ' In this country, petitions to Con- 
gress, in reference to official duties of legislators, 
seem, IN ALL CASES, to fall entirely without the 
sphere of female duty. Men are the proper persons 
to make appeals to the rulers whom they appoint,' 
&c. Here I entirely dissent from thee. The fact 
that women are denied the right of voting for mem- 
bers of Congress, is but a poor reason why they 
should also be deprived of the right of petition. If 



AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 113 

their numbers are counted to swell the number of 
Representatives in our State and National Legisla- 
tures, the very least that can be done is to give them 
the right of petition in all cases whatsoever ; and 
without any abridgement. If not, they are mere 
slaves, known only through their masters. 

In my next, I shall throw out my own views with 
regard to ' the appropriate sphere of woman ' — and 
for the present, subscribe myself, 

Thy Friend, A. E. GKIMKE. 

10** 



LETTER XII. 

HUMAN RIGHTS NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. 

East Boylston, Mass. 10th mo. 2d, 1837. 

Dear Friend : In my last, I made a sort of run- 
ning commentary upon thy views of the appropriate 
sphere of woman, with something like a promise, that 
in my next, I would give thee my own. 

The investigation of the rights of the slave has led 
me to a better understanding of my own. I have 
found the Anti-Slavery cause to be the high school of 
morals in our land — the school in which human rights 
are more fully investigated, and better understood 
and taught, than in any other. Here a great funda- 
mental principle is uplifted and illuminated, and 
from this central light, rays innumerable stream all 
around. Human beings have 7'ights, because they 
are moral beings : the rights of all men grow out of 
their moral nature ; and as all men have the same 
moral nature, they have essentially the same rights. 
These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they 
cannot be alienated : his title to himself is as perfect 
now, as is that of Lyman Beecher : it is stamped on 
his moral being, and is, like it, imperishable. Now 



HUMAN RIGHTS NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. H 

if rights are founded in the nature of our moral being, 
then the mere circumstance of sex does not give to 
man higher rights and responsibilities, than lo woman. 
To suppose that it does, would be to deny the self- 
evident truth, that the 'physical constitution is the 
mere instrument of the moral nature.' To suppose 
that it does, would be to break up utterly the relations, 
of the two natures, and to reverse their functions, cx- 
altincT the animal nature into a monarch, and hum- 
blino'the moral into a slave; making the former a 
proprietor, and the latter its property. Vvhen hu- 
man beings are regarded as moral beings, sex, instead 
of being enthroned upon the summit, administering 
upon rights and responsibilities, sinks into insignifi- 
cance and nothingness. My doctrine then is, that 
whatever it is morally right for man to do, it is 
morally right for woman to do. Our duties orig- 
inate, not from difference of sex, but from the di- 
versity of our relations in life, the various gifts and 
talent; committed to our care, and the different eras 

in which we live. 

This regalation of duty by the mere cuxumst^ance 
of sex, vather than by the fandamental pnncple of 
moral being, has led to all that multifarious tra.n of 
evUs aowing out of the anti-christian doctrnie of mas- 
culine and 'feminine virtues. By this doctnne man 
has bspn converted into the waurmr, and clothed 
with sternness, and those other Wndred quahties 
which in common estimation belong to h.s cbar.Kt r 
.3 a,««»; whilst woman has been taught town 

of flesh, to sit as a doll arrayed in g"'^- 



upon an arm ui "=.= ■■. j ■ ,i fn,- Iipt 

and pearls, and costly array,' to be adnrtred fot her 



116 HUMAN RIGHTS 

personal charms, and caressed and humored like a 
spoiled child, or converted into a mere drudge to suit 
the convenience of her lord and master. Thus have 
all the diversified relations of life been filled with 
* confusion and every evil work.' This principle 
has given to man a charter for the exercise of tyran- 
ny and selfishness, pride and arrogance, lust and bru- 
tal violence. It has robbed woman of essential 
rights, the right to think and speak and act on all 
great moral questions, just as men think and speak 
and act ; the right to share their responsibilities, per- 
ils and toils ; the right to fulfil the great end of her 
being, as a moral, intellectual and immortal creature, 
and of glorifying God in her body and her spirit 
which are His. Hitherto, instead of being a help 
meet to man, in the highest, noblest sense of the 
term, as a companion, a co-worker, an equal; she 
has been a mere appendage of his being, an instru- 
ment of his convenience and pleasure, the pretty toy 
with w^hich he wiled away his leisure moments, or 
the pet animal whom he humored into playfulness 
and submission. Woman, instead of being regarded 
as the equal of man, has uniformly been looked 
down upon as his inferior, a mer^ gift to fill up the 
measure of his happiness. In 'the poetry of roman- 
tic gallantry,' it is true, she has been called ' the last 
best gift of God to man ;' but I believe I speak forth 
the words of truth and soberness when I affirm, that 
woman never was given to man. She was created, 
like him, in the image of God, and crowned with 
glory and honor ; created only a little lower than the 
angels, — not, as is almost universally assumed, a little 



NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. 



117 



lower than man ; on her brow, as well as on hi«, was 
placed the ' diadem of beauty,' and in her hand llie 
sceptre of universal dominion. Gen : i. 27, 28. 
' The last best gift of God to man !' Where is the 
scripture warrant for this 'rhetorical flourish, this 
splendid absurdity V Let us examine the account of 
her creation. ' And the rib which the Lord God had 
taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her 
unto the man.' Not as a gift— for Adam immediate- 
ly recocrnized her as a yctrt of himself— {' this is now 
bone oFmy bone, and flesh of my flesh')— a compan- 
ion and equal, not one hair's breadth beneath him in 
the majesty and glory of her moral being ; not placed 
under his authority as a subject, but by his side, on 
the same platform of human rights, under the gov- 
ernment of God only. This idea of woman's being 
' ihe last best gift of God to man,' however pretty it 
may sound to the ears of those who love to discourse 
upon ' the poetry of romantic gallantry, and the gen- 
erous promptings of chivalry,' has nevertheless been 
the means of sinking her from an end into a mere 
raeans-o[ turning her into an appe7idage to man in- 
stead of recognizing her as a part of man^oi de- 
stroking her individuality, and rights, and re.ponsi- 
bilities,\nd merging her moral being in that of mam 
Instead of Jehovah being her king, her lawgiver, and 
her judge, she has been taken out of the exalted 
scale of existence in which He placed her, and sub- 

'it:rLt;ri ::":..*..-. 

to define the rights and respo.^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
beino-s as men and wo^nen. INo one > 



lis HtJMAN RIGHTS 

out just where the line of separation between them 
should be drawn, and for this simple reason, that no 
one knows just how far below man woman is, wheth- 
er she be a head shorter in her moral responsibilities, or 
head and shoulders, or the full length of his noble stat- 
ure, below him, i. e. under his feet. Confusion, un- 
certainty, and great inconsistencies, mustexist on this 
point, so long as woman is regarded in the least de- 
gree inferior to man ; but place her \vhere her Maker 
placed her, on the same high level of human rights 
with man, side by side with him, and difficulties van- 
ish, the mountains of perplexity flow down at the pres- 
ence of this grand equalizing principle. Measure 
her rights and duties by the unerring standard of 
moral being, not by the false weights and measures 
of a mere circumstance of her human existence, and 
then the truth will be self-evident, that whatever it is 
morally ug\\i for a man to do, it is morally right for a 
woman to do. I recognize no rights but human rights 
— I know nothing of men's rights and women's rights ; 
for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female. 
It is my solemn conviction, that, until this principle of 
equality is recognised and embodied in practice, the 
church can do nothing effectual for the permanent refor- 
mation of the world. Woman was the first trans- 
gressor, and the first victim of power. In all heath- 
en nations, she has been the slave of man, and 
Christian nations have never acknowledged her rio-hts. 
Nay more, no Christian denomination or So':iety has 
ever acknowledged them on the broad basis of hu- 
manity. I know that in some denominations, she is 
permitted to preach the gospel; not from a convic- 



NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. 119 

tion of her rights, nor upon the ground of her equality 
as a human being, but of her equality in spiritual gifts 
— for we find that woman, even in these Societies, is 
allowed no voice in framing the Discipline by which 
she is to be governed. Now, I believe it is woman's 
right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations 
by which she is to be governed, whether in Church 
or State ; and that the present arrangements of soci- 
ety, on these points, are a violation of Inunan rights, 
a ra7ik usurpatio7i of poioer, a violent seizure and 
confiscation of what is sacredly and inalienably hers — 
thus inflicting upon woman outrageous wrongs, 
working mischief incalculable in the social circle, and 
in its influence on the world producing only evil, and 
that continually. If Ecclesiastical and Civil gov- 
ernments are ordained of God, then I contend that 
woman has just as much right to sit in solemn coun- 
sel in Conventions, Conferences, Associations and 
General Assemblies, as man — ^just as much right to 
it upon the throne of England, or in the Presiden- 
tial chair of the United States. 

Dost thou ask me, if I would wish to see woman 
engaged in the contention and strife of sectarian con- 
troversy, or in the intrigues of political partizans ? l 
say no ! never— never. I rejoice that she does not 
stand on the same platform which man now occupies 
in these respects ; but I mourn, also, that he should 
thus prostitute his higher nature, and vilely cast 
away his birthright. I prize the purity of his char- 
acter as highly as I do that of hers. As a moral he^ 
mg, whatever it is moralhj tvrong for her to do, it is 
morally wrong for him to do. The fallacious doc- 



120 HUMAN RIGHTS 

trine of male and female virtues has well nigh ruin- 
ed all that is morally great and lovely in his charac- 
ter : he has been quite as deep a sufferer by it as 
woman, though mostly in dififerent respects and by 
other processes. As my time is engrossed by the 
pressing responsibilities of daily public duty, I have 
no leisure for that minute detail which would be re- 
quired for the illustration and defence of these princi- 
ples. Thou wilt find a wide field opened before thee, 
in the investigation of which, I doubt not, thou wilt 
be instructed. Enter this field, and explore it : thou 
wilt find in it a hid treasure, more precious than ru- 
bies — a fund, a mine of principles, as newas they are 
great and glorious. 

Thou sayest, ' an ignorant, a narrow-minded, or a 
stupid woman, cannot feel nor understand the ration- 
ality, the propriety, or the beauty of this relation' — i. 
e. subordination to man. Now, verily, it does appear 
to me, that nothing but a narrow-minded view of the 
subject of human rights and responsibilities can in- 
duce any one to believe in this suhordination to a fal- 
lible being. Sure I am, that the signs of the times 
clearly indicate a vast and rapid change in public sen- 
timent, on this subject. Sure I am that she is not to 
be, as she has been, ' a mere second-hand agcnf m 
the regeneration of a fallen world, but the acknowl- 
edged equal and co-worker with man in this glorious 
work. Not that ' she will carry her measures by 
tormenting when she cannot please, or by petulant 
complaints or obtrusive interference, in matters which 
are out of her sphere, and which she cannot compre- 
hend.' But just in proportion as her moral and in- 



NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. 121 

telleclual capacities become enlarged, she will rise 
higher and higher in the scale of creation, until she 
reaches that elevation prepared for her by her Maker, 
and upon whose summit she was originally stationed, 
only ' a little lower than the angels.' Then will it 
be seen that nothing which concerns the well-being 
of mankind is either beyond her sphere, or above her 
comprehension : The'ii will it be seen ' that America 
will be distinguished above all other nations for well 
educated women, and for the influence they will ex- 
ert on the general interests of society.' 

But T must close with recommending to thy peru- 
sal, my sister's Letters on the Province of Woman, 
published in the New England Spectator, and repub- 
lished by Isaac Knapp of Boston. As she has taken 
up this subject so fully, I have only glanced at it. 
That thou and all my country-women may better un- 
derstand the true dignity of woman, is the sincere 

desire of 

Thy Friend, 

A. E. GRIMKE. 



LETTER XIII. 



I^nSCELLANEOUS REMARKS, — CONCLUSION. 

HoLLisTON, Mass. lOtk monthy 23d, 1837. 

My Dear Friend : I resume my pen, to gather up 
a few fragments of thy Essay, that have not yet been 
noticed, and in love to bid thee farewelL 

Thou appearest to think, that it is peculiarly the duty 
of women to educate the little children of this nation. 
But why, I would ask— why are they any more bound to 
engage in this sacred employment, than men ? I be- 
lieve, that as soon as the rights of women are under- 
stood, our brethren will see and feel that it is their 
duty to co-operate wdth us, in this high and holy vo- 
cation, of training up little children in the way they 
should go. And the very fact of their mingling in 
intercourse with such guileless and gentle spirits, will 
tend to soften down the asperities of their characters, 
and clothe ihem with the noblest and sublimest Chris- 
tian virtues. I know that this work is deemed be- 
neath the dignity of man ; but how great the error ! 
I once heard a man, who had labored extensively 
among children, say, ' I never feel so near heaven, as 



MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 123 

when I am teaching these little ones.' lie was riLrht ; 
and I trust the time is coming, when the occupation of 
an instructor to children will be deemed the most 
honorable of human employment. If it is drudgery 
to teach these htlle ones, then it is the duty of men 
to bear a part of that burthen ; if it is a privilege and 
an honor, then we generously invite them to share 
that honor and privilege with us. 

I know some noble instances of this union of 
principles and employment, and am fully settled in 
the belief, that abolition doctrines are pre-eminently 
calculated to qualify men and women to become 
faithful and efficient teachers. They alone teach fully 
the doctrine of human rights ; and to know and ap- 
preciate these, is an indispensable prerequisite to the 
wisely successful performance of the duties of a 
teacher. The right understanding of these will qual- 
ify her to teach the fundamental hr.t unfashionable doc- 
trine, that ' God is no respecter of persons,' and that 
he that despiseth the colored man, because he is ' guil- 
ty of a skin not colored like our own,' reproacheth 
his Maker for having given him that ebon hue. I 
consider it absolutely indispensable, that this truth 
should be sedulously instilled into the mind of every 
child in our republic. I know of no moral truth of 
greater importance at the present crisis. Those teach- 
ers, who are not prepared to teach this in all its full- 
ness, are deficient in one of the most sterling elements 
of moral character, and are false to the holy trust 
committed to them, and utterly unfit to train up the 
children of this generation. So far from urging the 
deficiency of teachers in this country, as a reason why 



124 MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 

women should keep out of the anti-slavery excitement, 
I would say to my sisters, if you wish to become pre- 
eminently qualified for the discharge of your arduous 
duties, come into the abolition ranks, enter this high 
school of morals, and drink from the deep fountains of 
philanthropy and Christian equality, whence the wa- 
ters of healing are welling forth over wide desert wastes, 
and making glad the city of our God. Intellectual en- 
dowments are good, but a high standard of moral 
principle is better^ is essential. As a nation, we have 
too long educated the mi?td, and left the heaj't a moral 
waste. We have fully and fearfully illustrated the 
truth of the Apostle's declaration : ' Knowledge pufTeth 
up.' We have indeed been puffed up, vaunting our- 
selves in our mental endowments and national great- 
ness. But we are beginning to realize, that it is 
' Righteousness which exalteth a nation.' 

Thou sayest, when a woman is asked to sign a pe- 
tition, or join an Anti-Slavery Society, it is ' for the 
purpose of contributing her measure of influence to 
keep up agitation in Congress, to promote the excite- 
ment of the North against the iniquities of the South, 
to coerce the South by fear, shame, anger, and a sense 
of odium, to do what she is determined not to do.' 
Indeed ! Are these the only motives presented to the 
daughters of America, for laboring in the glorious 
cause of Human Rights ? Let us examine them. 
1. ' To keep up agitation in Congress.' Yes — for I 
can adopt this language of Moore of Virginia, in the 
Legislature of that State, in 1S32 : ' I should regret 
at all times the existence of any unnecessary excite- 
ment in the country on any subject ; but I confess. 



MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 125 

I see no reason to lament that which may have nriseii 
on the present occasion. It is often necessary iliat 
there should be some excitement among- the people, 
to induce them to turn their attention to questions 
deeply affecting the welfare of the Commonwealth ; 
and there never can arise any subject more loorthy 
their attention, than that of the abolition of slavery.^ 
2. ' To promote the excitement of the North against 
the iniquities of the South.' Yes, and against her 
own sinful copartnership in those iniquities. I 
believe the discussion of Human Rights at the North 
has already been of incalculable advantage to this 
country. It is producing the happiest influence upon 
the minds and hearts of those who are engaged in it ; 
just such results as Thomas Clarkson tells us, were 
produced in England by the agitation of the subject 
there. Says he, ' Of the immense advantages of this 
contest, I know not how to speak. Indeed, the very 
agitation of the question, which it involved, has been 
highly important. Never was the heart of man so 
expanded ; never were its generous sympathies so 
generally and soperseveringly excited. These sym- 
pathies, thus called into existence, have been useful 
preservatives of national virtue.' I, therefore, wish 
very much to promote the Anti-Slavery excitement 
at the North, because I believe it will prove a useful 
preservative of national virtue. 3. ' To coerce the 
South by fear, shame, anger, and a sense of odium.' 
It is true, that I feel the imn)inent danger of the 
South so much, that I would fain 'save them with 
fear, pulling them out of the fire ;' for, if they ever 
are saved, they will indeed be ' as a brand pluck- 



126 MISCELLANEOUS REMAKES. 

eJ out of the burning.' Nor do I see any thing 
wrong in influencing slaveholders by a feeling of 
shame and odium, as well as by a sense of guilt. 
Why may not abolitionists speak some things to their 
shame^ as the Apostle did to the Corinthians ? As to 
anger, it is no design of ours to excite so wicked a 
passion. We cannot help it, if, in rejecting the truth, 
they become angry. Could Stephen help the anger 
of the Jews, when ' they gnashed upon him with 
their teeth' ? 

But I had thought the principal motives urged by 
abolitionists were not these ; but that they endeavored 
to excite men and women to active exertion, — first, to 
cleanse their own hands of the sin of slavery, and 
secondly, to save the South, if possible, and the North, 
at any rate, from the impending judgments of heaven. 
The result of their mission in this country, cannot 
in the least affect the validity of that mission. Like 
Noah, they may preach in vain ; if so, the destruc- 
tion of the South can no more be attributed to them, 
than the destruction of the antediluvian world to 
him. ' In vain,' did I say? Oh no! The discus- 
sion of the rights of the slave has opened the way 
for the discussion of other rights, and the ultimate 
result will most certainly be, ' the breaking of every 
yoke,' the letting the oppressed of every grade and 
description go free, — an emancipation far more glori- 
ous than any the world has ever yet seen, — an intro- 
duction into that ' liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
his people free.' 

I will now say a few words on thy remarks about 
Esther. Thou sayest, ' When a woman is placed in 



MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 127 

similar circumstances, where death to herself and all 
her nation is one alternative, and there is nothing- 
worse to fear, but something to hope as the other al- 
ternative, then she may safely follow such an exam- 
ple.' In this sentence, thou hast conceded every 
thing I could wish, and proved beyond dispute just 
what I adduced this text to prove in my Appeal. I 
will explain myself. Look at the condition of our 
country — Church and State deeply involved in the 
enormous crime of slavery: ah ! more — claiminof 
the sacred volume, as our charter for the collar and 
chain. What then can we expect, but that the vials 
of divine wrath will be poured out upon a nation of 
oppressors and hypocrites ? for we are loud in our 
professions of civil and ecclesiastical liberty. Now, 
as a Southerner, I know that reflecting slaveholders 
expect their peculiar institution to be overthrown in 
blood. Read the opinion of Moore of Virginia, as 
expressed by him in the House of Delegates in 1S32 : 
— ' What must be the ultimate consequence of retain- 
ing the slaves amongst us ? The answer to this en- 
quiry is both obvious and appalling. It is, that the 
time loill come, and at no distant day, when we shall 
be involved in all the horrors of a servile ivar, which 
will not end until both sides have suffered much, un- 
til the land shall everywhere be red with blood, and 
until the slaves or the whites are totally exterminat- 
ed. If there be any truth in history, and if the time 
has not arrived when causes have ceased to produce 
their legitimate results, the dreadful catastrophe in 
which I have predicted that our slave system must 
result, if persisted in, is as inevitable as any event 
which has already transpired.' 
II 



128 MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 

Here, then, is one alternative, and just as tremen- 
dous an alternative as that which was presented td 
the Queen of Persia. ' There is nothing worse to 
fear' for the South, let the results of abolition efforts 
be what they may, whilst ' there is something- to hope 
as the other alternative ; ' because if she will receive 
the truth in the love of it, she may repent and be 
saved. So that, after all, according to thy own rea- 
soning, the women of America ' may safely follow 
such an example.' 

After endeavoring to show that woman has no 
moral right to exercise the right of petition for the 
dumb and stricken slave ; no business to join, in any 
way, in the excitement which anti-slavery principles 
are producing in our country; no business to join 
abolition societies, &c. &c. ; thou professesl to tell out 
sisters what they are to do, in order to bring the sys- 
tem of slavery to an end. And now, my dear friend, 
what does all that thou hast said in many pages, 
amount to ? Why, that women are to exert their in- 
fluence in private life, to allay the excitement which 
exists on this subject, and to quench the flame of sym- 
pathy in the hearts of their fathers, husbands, broth- 
ers and sons. Fatal delusion ! Will Christian women 
heed such advice ? 

Hast thou ever asked thyself, what the slave would 
think of thy book, if he could read it? Dost thou 
know that, from the beginning to the end, not a vord 
of compassion for him has fallen from thy pen?- Re- 
call, I pray, the memory of the hours which thou 
spent in writing it I Was the paper once moistened 
by the tear of pity ? Did thy heart once swell with 



MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 12& 

deep sympathy for thy sister in bonds ? Did it once 
ascend to God in broken accents for the deliverance 
of the captive ? Didst thou ever ask thyself, what 
the free man of color would think of it ? Is it such 
an exhibition of slavery and prejudice, as will call 
down Ai5 blessing upon thy head? Hast thou thought 
of these things ? or carest thou not for the blessings 
and the prayers of these our suffering brethren? 
Consider, I entreat, the reception given to thy book 
by the apologists of slavery. What meaneth that 
loud acclaim with which they hail it ? Oh, listen and 
weep, and let thy repentings be kindled together, and 
speedily bring forth, I beseech thee, fruits meet for 
repentance, and henceforth show thyself faithful to 
Christ and his bleeding representative the slave. 

I greatly fear that thy book might have been writ- 
ten just as well, hadst thou not had the heart of a 
woman. It bespeaks a superior intellect, but paralyzed 
and spell-bound by the sorcery of a worldly-minded 
expediency. AVhere, oh where, in its pages, are the 
outpourings of a soul overwhelmed with a sense of 
the heinous crimes of our nation, and the necessity of 
immediate repentance ? Farewell ! [Perhaps on a 
dying bed thou mayest vainly wish that ' Miss Beech- 
er on the Slave Question ' might perish with the 
mouldering hand which penned its cold and heartless 
pages. But I forbear, and in deep sadness of heart, 
but in tender love though I thus speak, I bid thee again. 
Farewell. Forgive me, if I have wronged thee, and 
pray for her who still feels like 

Thy sister in the bonds of a common sisterhood, 

A. E. GRIMKE. 



130 



MISCELLANEOUS MEMARKS. 



P. S. Since preparing the foregoing letters for the 
press, I have been informed by a Bookseller in Prov- 
idence, that some of thy books had been sent to him 
to sell last summer, and that one afternoon a number 
of southerners entered his store whilst they were 
lying on the counter. An elderly lady took up one 
of them and after turning over the pages for some 
time, she threw it down and remarked, here is a book 
written by the daughter of a northern dough face, to 
apologize for our southern institutions— but for my 
part, I have a thousand times more respect for the 
Abolitionists, who openly denounce the system of 
slavery, than for those people, who in order to please 
us, cloak their real sentiments under such a garb as 
this. This southern lady, I have no doubt, expressed 
the sentiments of thousands of the most respectable 
slaveholders in our country— and thus, they will tell 
the North in bitter reproach for their sinful subser- 
viency, after the lapse of a few brief years, when in- 
terest no longer padlocks their lips. At present the 
South feels that she must at least a^p^pear to thank her 
northern apologists. A. E. G. 



I 



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